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Strategies & Market Trends : Galapagos Islands -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: MulhollandDrive who wrote (7745)	10/17/2002 5:20:06 PM
From: MulhollandDrive	Respond to of 57110

now this is pretty darn slick... close stations, you drive further to fill up, spend more on gas.... cool. :) biz.yahoo.com Dow Jones Business News Shell Plans to Cut Nearly One-Third of U.S. Gasoline Stations Tuesday October 8, 2:14 am ET Royal Dutch/Shell Group said it will cut 30% of its U.S. gasoline stations by June 2004, or 6,000 stations, about double the number it had previously planned to reduce, Tuesday's Wall Street Journal reported. The Ango-Dutch oil concern, which is 60%-owned by Royal Dutch Petroleum Co. of the Netherlands and 40%-owned by Shell Transport & Trading Co. of the United Kingdom, said the more-aggressive station reduction would increase its chances to improve profitability. Shell, which bought part of Texaco Inc.'s interest last year in two refining and marketing ventures, has vowed to turn around its U.S. refining and marketing business, the lowest-performing part of its global portfolio. In the U.S., Shell has badly trailed chief competitors Exxon Mobil Corp., BP PLC and most other competitors in per-barrel profitability. "We are finding we need to keep fewer stations than previously thought," said George Smalley, a Shell spokesman. He said Shell's strategy is to shed lower- volume stations in several markets and hold onto market share and volume by pumping more volume through existing stations and through more aggressive marketing and advertising. The company points to its success in Los Angeles, where Shell already has cut back its station count by 27% and maintained its market share and sales volume. The move comes as Shell is spending $680 million to convert Texaco stations to Shell and to refurbish Shell stations. Shell plans to have about 15,000 stations by June of 2004. Last year, Shell and Saudi Refining Inc. acquired Texaco's interests in about 22,000 gasoline stations, eight refineries and 30,000 miles of pipelines for $ 2.1 billion and the assumption of $1.7 billion in debt and other liabilities. In doing so, Shell became the largest seller of gasoline in the country, with 14% of the gasoline market. In addition to employees who will lose jobs as stations close, Shell said Monday that it will cut 11% of the staff of its 15,000-person U.S. oil-products operation by 2004 and cut its retail marketing work force by 35%.

To: MulhollandDrive who wrote (7745)	10/17/2002 5:23:26 PM
From: X Y Zebra	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 57110

lol... noooo since i proved to them in two instances that some of their hardware was faulty, they now listen better and actually... their laptops (inspiron 8000) have turned out to be more reliable... besides... in the past i would refuse to buy their add-on guarantees... now i am glad to pay the "insurance" since the mere thought of NOT having to argue with them and/or explain why the damned thing ceased working, it is worth the extra $$$... -g of course, now that i buy the add-on guarantee... NOTHING ever goes wrong... [not complaining, just relating a story -g] EBAY not happy