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Anyone who has ever taken a U-turn to get to a lower-priced gas station or who has bypassed the neighborhood station in favor of a cheaper one on the way to work has probably wondered:

Why is there such variation in gas prices even in the same neighborhood?

Turns out, basic business principles are at play — namely, buying power and the age-old location, location, location.

In Arizona, 93 percent of gas stations are independently owned, including many that sell brand-name gasoline, said Andrea Martincic, executive director of the Arizona Petroleum Marketers Association.

"They're all going to have different suppliers, different contracts, different deals, different marketing strategies, locate in different retail areas," she said.

One operator might sell gas for less than what it costs the business just to draw customers away from a competitor across the street, she said. Other owners might choose to keep prices a bit higher but more steady throughout the year.

Arnold F. Mendez, business manager at A&M Shell, 5561 E. Speedway, said prices are affected by the amount of competition in the vicinity and whether a station is selling "branded" gasoline such as Shell, Exxon or Chevron as well as how many other avenues of income a station has.

Stations in an area with several competitors who also have many other things to offer besides gas — automotive services, carwash, convenience store — are likely to have lower prices, he said.

"You can't make it off gasoline sales alone," Mendez said.

The market is in an interesting position at the moment, he said.

Stations are not only selling less gasoline, but they are making less money per gallon because of credit- and debit-card fees, he said.

Mendez described a hypothetical scenario in which he tries to maintain a 10-to-12-cent profit per gallon. If credit-card companies charge 2 percent of each transaction, that margin was still attainable back when gas was $2 per gallon. But when gas approaches $4 per gallon, the credit-card percentage eats the profit.

"We have a very strong full-service clientele that has taken years to establish, and that is what I feel has been our savior in this difficult time," he said.

Stations that have a very small store will likely sell gas at higher prices, said Michelle Donati, a spokeswoman for AAA Arizona.

"Most gas stations make more off of a cup of coffee than they do off a gallon of gasoline," she said. "Stations with more goods and services can offer gas for less and use it as their loss leader."

Melanie Crosby, who with her husband, Lee, runs the independent Valley Mart in Avra Valley, said that even though her prices are higher than two competitors in the area, she hasn't turned a profit on gas in two years.

In fact, she tried once last year and then again about a month ago to stop selling gas completely.

But that proved disastrous for the rest of her business, which she described as a country store or a large convenience store that offers a full grocery line, a few hardware items, automotive supplies and grab-and-go food items.

As it is, people will stop and get $5 or $10 worth of gas to get into town and buy other things at the store in the process. When she doesn't sell gas, competitors get her business, she said.

"If I don't have gas, then they'll go there to get their $5 or whatever to get to town. And then I lose out on their pop (purchase)," Crosby said.

She guessed she pays 20 to 30 cents more per gallon than her in-town counterparts because she can't buy the volume they do.

That suggests the possibility that Crosby is subjected to zone pricing, an industry practice in which wholesale suppliers charge more to stations in sparsely populated zones with little competition around.

Likewise, the wholesalers charge less to stations in more dense areas with lots of competition.

Some suppliers do offer zone pricing in Arizona, said Luz Rubio, director of the Automotive Service Association of Arizona. But other factors come into play as well, she said.

Station operators in more affluent areas might charge more because they know the surrounding demographic can afford it, she said.

Some locations have higher overhead than others.

And then there's location itself.

"If a station is on a really good corner that gets a lot of traffic, they are able to purchase more (gas) and negotiate a better price," she said.