Interviewing a subject

A normal work week for someone with a full time job is forty hours. The owner of Lowest Price Gas in Pasadena, Maryland works anywhere between sixty and ninety hours a week. Thats sometimes double a normal work week. Curt Ashton, my father, opened a gas station in Pasadena a year ago next month. The months of July, August, and September were very stressful for Curt. He worked for eight weeks for a minimum of twenty hours a day. These weeks were filled with old bathrooms, a torn bicep, and a lot of hardwork. Now the store is open, Curt continues to work long shifts. He wakes up at 4:30 am to make sure the station is open by 6:00 am. He then does not leave the station until 6:00 pm that night. If there is a payroll due that monday he even stays an extra two hours longer. This owner believes that his most important job is not doing paperwork or ordering gas but to "build strong relationships" with customers. I mean, if you have been doing it for twenty plus years it might come easier than a brand new business owner. The stress on this is so important that Mr. Ashton makes his employees talk to every customer that walks in to have a conversation with them as if they were bestfriends. He thinks that the more nice and friendly he is to his customers the more they are going to come back because they enjoyed the warm feeling. I also believe that this is important because if someone treats me bad when I go into a store I will always remember that store as having bad service and I might not want to go back there.

Gas prices around Frederick are about thirty to forty cents more than the prices at Lowest Price Gas. Mr. Ashton keeps his prices around the lowest in the state of Maryland, (he even was on channel 13 Baltimore because he had the lowest price in the state.) Right now his prices are, $2.28 for regular, $2.55 for plus, $2.65 for supreme, and $2.46 for diesel. These prices are in the top ten for lowest prices in the state. Another goal for this owner is to get as many people across the driveway and getting gas as he can. The margin for most gas stations on a gallon of gas is seven to eight cents. My dad's gas station only makes one to two cents on each gallon of gas. "Somtimes you need to suffer before you can really start making money." A way that he can counter act this small margin is to sell the convenience items inside the store. Sodas, chips, and tobacco is where the profit comes in. Another way that he can counter act the small margin is using the service bay that is connected to the station. This service bay can make up for the margin because everyday many cars breakdown and need repair. This area of business is where Curt likes to stress the most because the profit from fixing cars can sometimes double the profit of what he made on gas that day.

Customers usually never see the normal work day of the owner. Some people might think that the owner of a company sits back and has peopledo their work for them. Mr. Ashton is not one of those owners. Like I said earlier, he has a twelve hour work day everyday. He works the register with ease, works in the service bay just like he was a mechanic and he checks the competitors prices five to six times daily. He also manually makes the payroll for all ten of his employees without a payroll company. There is also a fine line that an owner has to walk with the relationship of his employees. "You dont want to get too involved in your employees lives because they will try to use you to their advantage....but sometimes you have to because they are your employee and you are trying to give them a good salary for their hardwork." I also asked him how it feels to be a 50/50 partner with his dad on owning the business. He said that maybe one day he can buy out the partnership and become one hundred percent owner.

There are some things that Curt wishes he could add to the gas station to improve the selling of gasoline. He wishes he could add an overhang canopy to protect his customers from the bad weather. I also asked Curt Ashton if he would ever open another station in a different location. He responded with a chuckle and said, "I wish I could without all the stress that came with the first one." He is very family oriented and if he were to open a new gas station he would never be home and he definetly does not want to up his work load. The long days, hard work, and constant recognizing of gas prices continues to drive most owners nuts, Curt Ashton, lives for it. A great business owner and an all around expert when it comes to gas prices, gas stations, and customer service.