Dry stock is all the non-fuel merchandise in a store, from chips and soda to motor oil and wiper blades. The name sets it apart from wet stock, which is the fuel sitting in the tanks.
At a gas station or convenience store, the business splits in two. Wet stock is the liquid fuel in the underground tanks. Dry stock is everything else for sale inside: the snacks, drinks, tobacco, lottery, coffee, and the shelf of car supplies. The split matters because the two halves are bought, tracked, and counted in completely different ways.
Dry stock is where most stores make their real money. Fuel pulls cars onto the lot but keeps only a thin margin, while the goods inside carry a much richer markup. A cold drink or a bag of chips earns a far higher percentage than a gallon of gas ever will, so the inside store often produces most of a site’s profit.
Running dry stock well means watching it item by item: the cost, the retail price, what sells, and what walks out the door unpaid. That tracking lives in the pricebook, the master list of every item with its cost and price. When the pricebook drifts out of date, the store quietly loses margin on every sale of that item.
In useThe owner pulls the dry stock report and sees the cooler and the food counter, not the pumps, are carrying the store’s profit for the month.