A gas station owner in Phoenix is selling gas at nearly a half dollar less per gallon to help customers during the skyrocketing fuel prices.
As reported by NBC News, Jaswiendre Singh owns a Valero Food Mart and has been living in Phoenix for more than two decades with his wife and three kids. He bought the store in 2007 and works from 4:00AM to midnight every day.
Despite taking a purposeful financial hilt, the owner still has a lot of fees to cover from thousands of dollars in property taxes to insurance payments and mortgages for his work and home.
However, he said that "helping humanity" and his Sikh religious values are the reasons why he keeps his gas prices low, even if it heavily impacts his business. He added that "if you have something" then "you have to share it with other people".
Per Wave3, this is not the first time the Pheonix native has lowered his prices. During the recession in 2008, he also reduced costs to help others, saying that "everybody has hardships right now".
Watch Singh's interview below:Singh revealed that his gas supplier emails him every day to inform him how much delivery of gas costs, announcing that it was $4.49 a gallon but he sold it less for $4.39 a gallon.
Singh sells about 1,500 gallons of gas a day at his store, which means he’s losing about $150 a day. He explained while he is gaining money back by selling items inside the store, he still doesn’t know how long he can maintain losing money at the pumps.
Regardless, the owner declared that because customers assist his business by shopping at his store, he felt that it was necessary to support them during what he described as a "crisis".
"I have to make the money somewhere, someday, right, but not right now," he said, adding, "Now it’s time to help people".
In recent months, gas prices have increased nationwide due to the ongoing war in Ukraine, as countries in the West pushed to restrict oil imports from Russia as a response to the country’s invasion.
Gas station owners aren't regulated, and therefore they get prices from the supplier and then determine how much of a profit they want to make off each gallon of gas.
But for Singh, he only wants to make a profit once the costs go back down, saying: "Communities help each other."