Welcome to season two of the podcast! Very excited to profile new people and new stories, and this week is pretty incredible. Coming to you from the small, idyllic town of Sierra Madre just below the San Gabriel mountains in Southern California, this episode originates from a diner/restaurant affectionately called "The Only Place in Town." They've been in business since 1945 and specialize in traditional American fare, but they do it very well. "The Only Place in Town" is a fave and is always packed.
I met Jack there, the son of an Armenian family who immigrated to America from Lebanon in 1969. His father found work pretty quickly and saved up his money to buy his first business--a gas station. One gas station soon turned into many and Jack was groomed to take over someday.
Alas, today's gas station biz model is far different from when his father started in the 1970's, and Jack shares all the dirty little secrets that go on behind the scenes when it comes to prices, taxes, middlemen, property ownership, government regulations to ruin stations, excessive permits and fees--and how it all gets passed on to the customer.
Jack also takes a deep dive into the hype and economics driving electric and hydrogen powered cars. How green are they? How robust is their infrastructure? In Jack's opinion, the e-model has a long way to go, and hydrogen is a total bust!
Jack lays it out from first-hand experience as a station owner who took a flier on hydrogen pumps and has seen nothing but failure--everywhere.
Jack doesn't think he'll be in the gas station business much longer. The economic forces at play and the downward pressure on smaller companies are too strong to fight forever.
Listen and learn...