This article is writing as if this is a growth business, we are a century in and it is more a game of musical chairs, so it is a question of where the survivors are located, not where new entrants start.
There used to be petrol stations everywhere, it was the hot new product to sell once upon a time and every garage would want to have a forecourt. The infrastructure needed then wasn't that much more sophisticated than that needed for a lemonade stand. You could just put the sign up and profit from the passing trade very much on a know-the-customer-personally basis. No upsells were needed, it was an easy way to print money.
Then the market got saturated. Much like mobile phone shops, suddenly small towns had half a dozen of them.
Then this business got picked off by the supermarkets in European markets. They sold own brand petrol at first at a better price than the established brands. The brand did not matter as it is a commodity product. They did not have to make money off it as they were luring customers in for their big shop.
After this round of musical chairs only supermarkets, convenience stores and motorway service stations survived.
I think it has been a cruel business and it is quite sad that something so valuable has no return in it for the end retailer.
In Ireland, I remember the petrol being sold on the street in front of newsstands. It makes clear the reason for having the gas cap on the left side in Japanese and British cars, because people would just parallel park and fill up. I imagine those locations are rare now both for flow-of-traffic and environmental reasons.
In the US gas stations used to be very full service. For the price of a tank (and tip) you would get your radiator and tires topped off, windshield cleaned, etc. There were probably a few old groceries that had a couple pumps but the full service stations quickly became popular. That ended with the oil crisis and stagflation, and self service became the norm, except in a few holdout states like New Jersey, where full service was the law.
The sad result you mention (which is good for consumers, perhaps bad for the environment) is that commodity pricing and loss-leader mentality has made gas worth selling at a small loss to get people to buy high-margin items in the store. QT has cheap gas and expensive sodas.
There used to be petrol stations everywhere, it was the hot new product to sell once upon a time and every garage would want to have a forecourt. The infrastructure needed then wasn't that much more sophisticated than that needed for a lemonade stand. You could just put the sign up and profit from the passing trade very much on a know-the-customer-personally basis. No upsells were needed, it was an easy way to print money.
Then the market got saturated. Much like mobile phone shops, suddenly small towns had half a dozen of them.
Then this business got picked off by the supermarkets in European markets. They sold own brand petrol at first at a better price than the established brands. The brand did not matter as it is a commodity product. They did not have to make money off it as they were luring customers in for their big shop.
After this round of musical chairs only supermarkets, convenience stores and motorway service stations survived.
I think it has been a cruel business and it is quite sad that something so valuable has no return in it for the end retailer.