Name:   GoneFishin - Subject:   Free Market Explanation Date:   3/10/2022 9:10:22 PM

On a sunny Tuesday afternoon, the Mobil on La Cienega across from the Beverly Center had customers despite its $6.95 price ($7.55 for the many buying premium).

When reached at his office, the owner and operator of the gas station, Charles Khalil, said that there’s no economic mystery behind his prices: People shopping around the Beverly Center are just willing to pay.

He’s operated the location since 1990 and kept the prices above average since the beginning. “I always kept my pricing even, my profitability and everything even, 30 years to today, always the same,” Khalil said.

With land so valuable, his mortgage payments are high, he said, and after his franchise agreement expires in a few years he expects he’ll sell. “It doesn’t pay to be a gas station with the value of the land” in the middle of a shopping district. But charging a premium for fuel has worked for Khalil, he says. “I have never had problems” moving gasoline, he said.