One thread has gone way off topic, so how about a new one on gas stations. Far too many popping up in my opinion as I have seen this phenomenon before in the U.S. in the 1940's, 1950's, and 1960's era. What will happen is there will be one on every corner so to speak. Then when they figure out there are far too many for them all to make a profit and in about 3-5 years they will start shutting them down until about 50% are vacant. Then they will try and rent out the empty buildings for use as party stores or whatever they can find. Then the problem will also be all those dormant tanks in the ground with gasoline and diesel in them. ( And I was driving when gas was as low as 16.9 cents a gallon). I also worked part-time in a gas station for 5 years while attending high school which gave me an inside perspective as to what was going on. A big problem I see in the Dumaguete area is that most of the new stations are all crowded together fairly near town for the most part. We have to drive about 6 km's just to get to a station and we live in a fairly heavily populated portion of N.W. Batinguel. It sure seems to me a station could do well out this way. Everyone has to go a long way just to buy fuel. I think if these owners spent more time and effort looking for profitable locations instead of building 200 feet from their competitor that they would be much better off and so would the general population.
The reason they pop up is that gas is up to 10p higher in Dumaguete than Cebu and Luzon. All companies want their share of the cake. Competition might bring it down, if there isn't a cartel between them keeping the prices up. Then one could wonder if lower prices are wanted or not. I would gladly pay 100p / litre if it only made fewer tricycles on the road ;-) But, tricycle drivers are not hit by the increased prices, they always fill for 50p regardless of price :D
Zoning and proper business permits allocated by the local government would help, but they seem to be oblivious to it. It would be easy for a city to say, "no, you can't put a gas station there", but no one here thinks that way. It is always about money, whether shortsighted or not.
On one hand I agree, on the other not. It would interfere with free enterprise and market making. It could be abused, say a friend of the mayor runs a resort, and he refuse to let competition in because "There is enough resorts".
True, or 20 resort owners all decide to build next to each other because they are allowed to by the city, and none end up making money and failing. It is called city planning, and is decided on by the planning department, not just a few people. It would be unlikely the planning compartment and the city council who votes yes or no to approve major projects would all be bought off. One of the better small/medium sized cities on Negros is Kabankalan. It is not perfect, but there was some thought in how it was laid out, and how it is run. Dumaguete could learn from them. Which is better? To have too many gas stations built, and later fail, become empty, and an eyesore, or proper regulation of the number? Each gas station surely can only make a profit based on the amount of traffic and the general size of the population in the area. It would not be hard to figure out. With that data it would not be difficult to explain to a potential gas station owner why their station can not be built. As stated earlier, the government here is short sighted. One for allowing too many gas stations, and the other for allowing underground, single wall, steel tanks that eventually rust out and leak destroying the water table for miles around them. Think about it - what if the water table where each one of us gets our water was polluted by gasoline or diesel fuel? Then what?? Sadly, it is just a matter of time. There are some wonderful cities in the world that are very well planned, and because of this the business community is well rounded and everyone makes money. The same thing goes for malls. When there is just the right mix of businesses malls usually do well, but if they allow too many of the same businesses none end up doing well and the mall fails.
