[Noaidi]

I said "monopolistic practices", I did not say it was a monopoly.

"In 2019, shortly after Buc-ee's opened their first store in Alabama, the company was sued for "setting unfair pump prices", because they were selling gasoline to the customers for less money than it costs to buy and transport it to a retail outlet. While it is common within the United States for larger gas station chains to use a pricing strategy where gas is used as a loss leader to draw customers and encourage the sale of other goods, the practice is banned under Alabama state law."

_wiki

[mindslight]

A loss leader isn't a monopolistic practice. They can be related, for example video game consoles can be loss leaders, to build demand for a monopoly on games for that specific console. But that relies on the sticky market effect from a customer owning a particular console, whereas the loss leader on gas has to convince the customer to visit the store every time.

If anything that Alabama law seems a bit questionable. As long as gas stations have card readers where you don't even have to go in the store, converting gas customers to convenience store customers seems like quite the uphill battle to me.

(modulo the surveillance issues of using payment cards)