I’m not talking about the range in prices from high to low, but a seemingly planned and manipulated change almost exactly the same at every gas station (with maybe 1 or 2 cent differences). In my town, the prices have been a normal high of $3.44 no matter which station I go to. Then a week later, they all change the same day down to $3.34. The lowest they have gone down to is $3.24 except ONCE it was $3.14 (all of the stations). Then they change back and forth periodically, but usually stay longer at the higher price.
Since it’s a small town, I can drive the whole length in about 8 minutes and see about 5 gas stations. This has been happening over the last several months.
Now, here is a strange happening. I drive about 45 miles south of me to a larger city that normally has gas prices about 10, or sometimes 15 cents cheaper than my town.
I go there about 2 or maybe 3 times a month, so something I noticed about the same time as the funny gas prices in my town is that the exact same thing was happening there with almost the exact same prices. No longer are they 10 to 15 cents cheaper.
Have any of you noticed this in your areas?
Yep! Prices where I am have gone as low as $2.99 but after a few days of a lower price they always return to $3.39 which seems to be their preferred price.
@Claudia, Yes. It seems to happen all the time. I believe it has to do with the current spot price of gasoline at regional distributors. Filling stations pump price generally reflects replacement cost, not the cost of the last tank fill-up.
Not hearing “drill baby drill” like I did prior to and during the first Trump presidency.
Why?
its all a scam, here down in s. fl. they do it all the time. don’t worry the govt. will investigate then the gas station owners will pay a small fine and continue on with business as usual. this country is Soo screwed.
Agreed that there are a lot of variables involved including competition. Rarely do you see two or three gas stations on the same intersection with different pricing. a couple weeks ago, five miles south of here the BP had gas for $3:24. Up north where I live BP was at $2.89.
Gas prices have never had no rhyme or reason as far back as the late 60’s and early 70’s when I was pumping gas for my dad at his full-service Shell gas station and auto repair garage, even when gas was cheap and under .35 to .40 cents per gallon for super unleaded gas and a little cheaper for regular gas. We had a very prominent well to do realtor as one of our regular customers who would always bitch to my dad about the price of gas, he drove a large Chevy P/U truck that he used to tow his boat to the lake on weekends and could fill up both his truck and boat for about 20 dollars and he would always gripe about gas being too damn expensive. I could fill up my 61 VW camper microbus for $2.50 in the early 70’s because it only had a 10-gallon gas tank. Because of inflation the price of gas is still relatively the same now as it was it was then due to the shrinking purchase power of the dollar. It sucks but that’s just the way it works unfortunately. And my dad hardly ever made a profit selling gas, he made most of his money on auto repairs in his 3-bay garage fixing and repairing cars.
Might also have something to do with trying to refill the Strategic Reserve, which Biden emptied out for political purposes.
The further I go from I-75 the lower the gas prices, though diesel stays about the same
Costco, $2.80 today, plus 3% back on the Costco credit card
It’s been $2.80 for nearly a year, despite all of the talk of prices going up/down every other week.
I brought this subject up to Claudia because there has been a very consistent pattern the last four months or so here in Dallas.
After falling from $3.50 or so to the $2.99 level, I was enjoying the prices to continue to fall all the way down to $2.60 and even a bounce into the $2.50s 4 months ago. Then, one day, ALL the stations were at $2.99 with some hitting $3.20.
Then the cycle/pattern starts again. I drive so much, I buy gas every day so this is like watching a re-run. It drops a few cents per day, and in about 2-3 weeks, reaches the $2.60s level – then BAM! $2.99 the next morning.
It does not feel right. Like the market and supply/demand is not in play. Why always $2.99? Why always stopping in the $2.60s (If it ever hits the high $2.50s, that’s the last day before it all resets everywhere).
Here in north commieville gas is 4.59 most of the time at the name brand dives and 3.89 at the off brand shacks. You mutts with a two as the first number just don’t have enough government… yet. I have heard in south commieville the first number is in the six or seven range. Those brown people really know how to vote for more government don’t they? Must be why the communists opened the border up.
If you live in the wealthy part of town, you’ll pay up to $0.40/gal. more because they figure you’ll pay it – and they’re right. Drive across the tracks/river/ridge/lake (etc.) and buy there. Not worth it? Depends on how big your tank is and what your time is worth.
I have always found it strange how people can justify driving fifty miles out of their way to save 10 cents on a gallon of gas. If they buy 20 gallons, that means they realize a whopping savings of $2 for their trouble. I guess it must be the principle.
I have seen the same thing in SE VA. Price flucuates up/down by .30c/.40c over a week or so.
Costco – $2.49 today. 🙂
We have a “three station corner” nearby, and know the manager at one of the stores. They change prices multiple times a day to compete against each other. Since this is a major intersection with an elevated toll road running thru it, you can’t see all three signs at a glace. So you see employee’s walking over and checking the other store’s prices.
The manager we know told us it got so cut throat recently, that they get essentially no profit from gas sales and have had to stop matching. As a result, they’re now going 3 – 4 weeks between tank fills, and traffic to the store is in free-fall. The only thing keeping them in business is beer & cigarettes, which one of the competing stations doesn’t sell.
Strange business model…
KR
There is a small very upscale yuppie convenience and grocery store on the far S. side of Spokane next to the Manito golf course and country club that always has the highest gas prices in town. I used to deliver flowers there and it’s a very snobby place with totally outrageous prices but has a steady stream of well to do customers. The ironic thing is the building was a former full-service Chevron gas station years ago and they still sell Chevron gas at rip-off prices. It was owned and managed by a friend of my dad who was also one of his fishing and hunting buddies.
My dad was in business selling gas and repairing cars from 1967-1982 when Shell built him a state-of-the-art gas station and auto repair shop. He lost his lease in 82 when Budget Oil which owned the property increase his rent from $800 a month to $2400 and my dad said to hell with that, and he and my youngest brother opened up a full-service auto repair shop near the downtown area that was in business until about 3 years ago when my brother lost his lease as just as he was about to retire in his mid 60’s. Where Regal Shell service was in Lincoln Heights on the S. hill they built a McDonalds which is still in business today. I jokingly refer to it as the Shell station memorial McDonalds when I drive by there. My dad and my mom never patronized that mickey d’s ever just because.
About forty years ago, I knew the owner of a gas station in a smallish Texas city. He told me that prices were fixed each morning with an “anonymous” phone call from the local gas station owners association. Anyone trying to buck the system was threatened with various forms of retribution.
The only stations that were somewhat immune were the big chains that set their prices through their corporations, though they often heavily influenced the association’s price.
One of my other brothers had a full-service auto shop in Seattle Eric’s Garage which was down below the University of Wash. on the flats just off Lake Washington about a mile or so from Hec. Edmundson pavilion. He also lost his lease after nearly 40 years in business a few years ago and his garage has been turned into a microbrewery.
I live in a rural area in the midwest, and the most ubiquitous chain is Caseys. Our local Caseys manager gets a call in the morning from some regional headquarters manager, who sets the price of gas that day. In our particular town, there are 3 or 4 other gas stations, and they generally set their prices about a penny below Caseys.
In the next village over there is one gas station – also a Caseys. That station is generally 5-10 cents more because it is the only game in town; call it a convenience surcharge. Gas stations adjacent to interstates are also more expensive because folks will not venture very far away from the interstate to gas up.
As a general rule, gasoline sales do not generate much profit for the stations so you rarely see just a gas station – most of the places also have convenience stores which generate the profit. The one station in our town that doesn’t have a convenience store is also the only one in the area that is full service, and their prices can be $.10 higher. They do a decent business because our area has a lot of older people who are willing to pay for full service. I should add that gasoline taxes in Illinois are now $.48 per gallon.
I don’t really see any conspiracy – at least at the station level. Yes, stations do collude somewhat in order to prevent an old-fashioned gas war, but gas wars can be ruinous for some stations. But there are a lot of factors involved in getting gasoline to the consumer, including but not limited to what the refineries happen to be making at any particular time.
When I lived in Canada, I worked for a big membership warehouse store headquartered in Kirkland, Washington, that shall remain nameless. We has a gas station. In the office there was a big white board where they kept track of gas prices at other gas stations in the area.
While nobody wants to lose money, they don’t want to lose customers because their prices are too high, either. I don’t think it is an indication of anything nefarious, just keeping close tabs on what the competition is doing. The cost one station pays for gas is about the same as another’s, so prices probably reach equilibrium fairly quickly.
If one station’s prices are too low they may run out of gas and people won’t come in to the QuickiMart to buy things, which is where stations really make their profit.
I still think something is going on when the city 45 miles south of me ALWAYS had gas prices 10-15 cents cheaper than my little town since I moved here in 2017.
Now, the prices are the same for the last several months.
What changed?
Here in the Soviet Commonwealth our gas prices hover around $2.89 a gallon (that’s $0.76 per liter for the commies out there ;D). The big stations display that price, but that’s the price you pay with their “discount card”; if you don’t have their card, it’s ten cents more. It’s always the ‘real’ price down the street at the Gulf station; Cumbies, Pride, Shell are always ten cents more than the little two pump Gulf station.
Price collusion is nothing new, and far easier to coordinate these days.
Why is Diesel more expensive than gas? in Europe Diesel is the cheapest fuel. The economy runs on Diesel. Low Diesel prices, lower prices on groceries and goods.
We’ve got a price war between a Sheetz, a WaWa, and a 7-11 here at the airport. It’s running about $2.75.
Gee Claudia, we must be neighbors.
Say what?,
Michigan?
I can drive across Maryland the the price of gas near any major state road or interstate highway is within 2 cents per gallon at all the major brand stations throughout the state.
In the cities it can be up to .25 more per gallon.
There are some anomalies – there is a recently opened Sheetz station near my office that is .30 per gallon cheaper than the Royal Farm a mile away 2.76 VS 3.05. It’s funny to see all the cars still patronizing the Royal Farm.
My wife calls my tracking gas prices the “man’s version of coupons”.
Claudia, if it’s upper Michigan will Northern Wisconsin do?
I’m Southwest Michigan.
Close enough!
in my area there can be anywhere between a 10 to 15 cent difference depending on brand and location.
I even have two stations with the same brand on opposite sides of a highway and less than 3/4 mile apart that often has a 20 cent difference in price with one averaging 5 cents below any other brand and the other being 15 cents higher.