Odds and ends, 5/1/08

If you live in Boulder, Colo., you are not allowed to dye your dog.

A Boulder salon owner ticketed in March for dyeing her poodle pink has made a deal with the city attorney's office that could dismiss the charge against her in six months if she doesn't commit a similar violation in that time.

The ordinance was enacted decades ago to stop the sale of dyed chicks at Easter. It was not intended to keep people from dyeing their poodles.

I'll let our animal welfare blogger take it from here.

I don't know about pink poodles, but my wife tells the story of when she was a girl, she put an old sweater on her family's German shepherd. The poor dog hid in the bushes from the embarrassment.

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From a story at CNBC:

Major automakers reported lower April sales across the board as record-setting gas prices stemmed vehicle purchases, with truck and SUV sales seeing especially steep falls. ...

GM's Hummer brand was hit especially hard, with a 49.8 percent plunge year-over-year. ...

My wife and I have been talking about how we need a second vehicle. She has been hoping for a van, but with van prices and gasoline prices, we may have to rely on something the size of a Honda Civic.

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Some figures today from Marathon Oil's first-quarter earnings report, specifically on the Speedway convenience store chain.

Speedway reported profits of 11.47 cents a gallon on 792 million gallons of gasoline and other petroleum-based fuels, for a total profit of about $90.842 million, in the first quarter. In the first quarter of last year, Speedway had a profit of 12.17 cents per gallon on 800 million gallons sold, or a total profit of about $97.36 million.

But gasoline is not the big profit center at Speedway. General merchandise -- candy, beer, soft drinks and the other stuff that's inside the store -- is where the money is. In the first quarter of this year, Speedway stores reported profits of $163 million on sales of $647 million. Last year, the numbers were $160 million profits on $644 million in sales.

So in the first quarter of this year, Speedway's profits were down about $3 million when you combine gasoline and general merchandise. Another way to look at it: Gasoline sales account for about 36 percent of the profits at Speedway.

As I noted above, the real profit comes inside the store, not outside.