Gas prices

[Gavin Allan]

A week ago on Friday evening, on my way home from work I noticed that the gas stations had jacked up their prices that day from $3.44 to $3.59. However, a Conoco station near my house was still at $3.44. I stopped and filled my Trac, because it was below "E" and almost on "P" (push). When i got home, I turned right around and filled the Pilot, which was running on fumes. (My wife lost her job a few months ago due to "reorganization" and we are running more check to check than usual. Fiday was my pay day!) Anyway, I saved about $8.00 because it went up to $3.59 by 9:00 that night. Got some good TopTier rated gasoline too!



Gas Buddy confirms that stations in towns less than an hour away are now selling gas for as low as $3.23, however, the little cartel in our town still has it at $3.59. We have a petroleum pipeline and terminal in our town, are located at the crossroads of 3 major highways, have rail service, and barge service. However, our gas is always at least ten cents higher than everyone else. It sucks.

 

[Mark Stadnicki]

blksn8k- that's what I meant, I keep getting them confused. Thanks! :driving:

 

[blksn8k]

History repeats itself yet again. This morning the local news reported that our gas prices were (gasp) below the nation average. Guess what? Gasbuddy.com just issued a price hike alert. Average price per gal is projected to rise from $3.49 to $3.79 and most stations in my neighborhood are already there. Rotten bas@#$%^s!

 

[H D]

Supply and demand, huh?

 

[Richard L]

I look at GasBuddy daily for the cheapest gas, even if I don't need gas that day. However, I find most of GasBuddy's predictions way off base. There are so many variables in the world political and economic environment that effects gas prices that nobody can predict anything.



Remember last year when everybody was predicting record high gas prices, when in fact the gas prices continued to drop, and drop!



What is the point in anyone predicting future gas prices??? We as consumers can do nothing about it, except bitch about it. I cannot buy and store 6 months of gasoline at lower prices today in order to avoid paying the higher prices later? That's what Speculators do, but they never take delivery of the gasoline or oil...their transactions are all just paper-swaps.



The best we can hope for is to hold off getting gas today, hoping the price will go down a penny or two tomorrow, or perhaps we can buy gas today before it goes up tomorrow?



As long as Gasoline and Oil remain on the world Commodities markets we will always have these cyclic spikes and valleys in fuel prices.



Who can predict that a Refinery will blow up, or that some natural disaster, or even human error will cause a Refinery to shut down for an extended period, and prices will jump?



...Rich

 

[blksn8k]

Rich, that's all well and good but did your prices rise at the same time as ours? Was there any reason for a $.30/gal increase other than the fact that the prices in our area were below the national average? BTW, gasbuddy.com nailed the price increase to the penny.

 

[Richard L]

bblksn8k,

I cannot say why your gas prices jumped....Perhaps it was GasBuddy's prediction that gas would go up by 30 cents a gallon that prompted the stations in your area to go up....simply because GasBuddy said prices your area were too low?



The kinds of predictions that I am talking about are those that project prices going up or down over the next few months. We all know that gas prices fluctuate when they switch from summer to winter and winter to summer gas....So I don't consider that to be much of a prediction when it happens every year. What can we do about it



If someone can predict that gas prices are going up or down today or tomorrow, then I can determine if I should buy gas today or tomorrow. Beyond a few days their predictions really don't mean much to the average consumer.



...Rich

 

[blksn8k]

Here we go again. The prices in the Akron, OH area had slowly dropped over the past two weeks but today they again jumped from $3.52 to $3.79/gal. I have lived in this area for the past 26 years and the gas prices have jumped around like this for as long as I can remember. They have been doing this long before there was a gasbuddy.com. I will be so glad to get the hell out of this area and move back to PA when I retire. The prices where I exit the interstate in PA when I go back there on the weekends have been holding steady at $3.35/gal for at least the past month. I just filled up there yesterday afternoon and hopefully I can make it back there on Thursday night before I need gas again.

 

[Robert Howell]

$1.24 a litre up here, that works out to $4.96 a gallon. We are way cheaper than eastern Canada at over $6.00 a gallon in some of the larger centers

 

[H D]

Non-ethanol has been exactly $4.18 for a few months at my station. Nobody will convince me that gas is priced based on supply and demand.

 

[Andy Chase]

Gas jumped from $3.79 yesterday morning to $4.19 almost everywhere locally in the Twin Cities area. of course I didn't have time to fill up in the am :angry::angry:



Apparently there are 2 Chicago based refinaries that are shut down for 1week to 2 months for maintenance who supplies the upper midwest. Nice they timed their shut downs for the same exact times. They couldn't have staggered them????

 

[Bill V]

Andy, I heard lots of people saying that Twin Cities gas prices were going (or have gone) to $4.19--but so far, the stations nearest me are (or at least were, when I left for work this morning) still holding at $3.89. I can't help but feel those $4.19 projections were overblown--or at least premature...

 

[Andy Chase]

I've only seen 1 station on the north end under $4.19, there was smaller one that was $3.99. Costco and Sams have it for between $3.74-$3.77 but long long lines right now. Costs me $8 more to fill my tank up... That'll add up quickly

 

[Andy Chase]

$4.29 on the way home yesterday now. I hate to see what they might be on the way home today....:angry::cry:

 

[Bill V]

Andy, the stations I mentioned near me were $4.19 when I went home yesterday, and were $4.29 on the way in this morning. :angry:

 

[Andy Chase]

It should be illegal for the refineries to close at the same time for scheduled mainenance. It Sucks for me if we're not going to see relief until mid June because I take primarly only 2 trips that are farther than 3 hours from home every year and they're both in the begining/mid June. :banghead::angry::fire::fire:

 

[blksn8k]

Ours just jumped to $3.99/gal today. Some Akron area stations were as low as $3.49 about a week and a half ago. However, stations in my neighborhood have not been below $3.69 for several weeks. I have not filled up since my last trip to PA and I paid $3.45 over there on Memorial Day. When the price here jumped to $3.89 I thought I would wait a few more days for it to come back down. Big mistake. Now I am going to be stuck paying $3.99. I will only get 10 gallons which will get me back to PA Friday evening. I just checked the station where I filled up last in PA and the price is at $3.43. WTF?

 

[Richard L]

I really think the price of gas has little to do with the price of oil and all the other global activities that we are lead to believe.



Much of the price fluctuations are simply based on the going prices in a specific neighborhoood or local area. If someone raises their price, others follow. If someone lowers their price, others will follow. There are neighborhoods around here where you can drive for a mile or two and the prices on the pumps will rarely vary by more than a penny a gallon. Then the next neighborhood will sell gas for 5 cents a gallon cheaper, or even 5 cents a gallon more???



I cannot believe that two stations selling the same brand of gasoline within spitting distance would have than much price variance. If they negotiated a bad contract on purchasing gas, then they deserve to go out of business, and we should not have to pay for their stupidity.



Many gas stations include a convenience store or the convenience store also sells gas??? so I think the price of gas often fluctuates depending upon how the convenience store does. If the convenience store is not making money, they raise the price of gas to offset their loses, and if the they are losing money on gas, they hike up the prices in the convenience store (which are already too high).



We have a local gas station that is also a small restaurant. I have been told they make more money from the restaurant operations than they do selling gas, but their gas is often the highest in the area... and they are the first to raise gas prices, and the last to lower their gas prices.



...Rich

 

[blksn8k]

Happened again today. This morning the local media reported that our gas prices were 11 cents/gal lower than the national average. This afternoon the price per gallon jumped 24 cents. I guess your right Rich, it's just a coincidence. :sad:

 

[H D]

I've been paying exactly $4.18/gal since around February. I haven't asked why but they haven't changed the non-ethanol price at my station at all. I feel like a sucker and sometimes wonder why I keep getting it but at least it's really easy to budget for gas with two fill ups per vehicle per month.