[BabyPeanut]

*February Thread Revived via Merge with July Thread*

Too bad the poll got munged up.

[BabyPeanut]

Person from the state of New Jersey, USA reports the same:

http://marylandgasprices.com/Forum_MSG. ... &page_no=1
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('SoOcCoNJ', 'T')his has recently happened in the county I live in in New Jersey. My jaw dropped when I saw Cumberland Farms priced higher than Exxon and Shell in the last week. First time I'd seen such a thing.

[SidneyTawl]

The Sams Club in my town is usally 3 to 5 cents cheaper. The last few days the Exxon chains etc are around 2.17 average depending on location in the town. Yet sams is 2.05.

I thought about that too.

[Armageddon]

Quick Trip here in st.louis is 2.29 right now. highest i have ever seen

[oiless]

What I see here on the west coast of Canada is a lot of independant stations closing. It looks like economic terrorism to me. They run low on gasoline and are forced to fill their tanks at the going rate from their suppliers. Once that gas is in the underground tanks they are stuck. The franchise station "owners" are guarteed a profit, 2 or 3 cents a litre as near as I can tell, but their prices are set by head office.
So, the little guy fills his tanks with gas at say, 82 cents a litre. The franchise staions around him all drop their prices in unison to 79.9 cents a litre. The independant either stays high and sells no product, and has no customers buying pop, candy, cigs, etc., or he sells his gasoline at a loss.

I spoke with an independant a few days ago who was selling gas for 4 cents a litre less than he paid for it, simply to remain competitive with the Esso accross the street.

[eastbay]

Safeway in my town is 2.53 for regular. The big names on the same block are 2.58 and 2.59.

But on Jackson St in Hayward, it's the opposite. The Arco is 2.45 and the 'cheapo' station across the street is 2.55.

I suspect we are seeing under 2.50 regular gas for the last time.

[MD]

In Ohio the prices are fairly stable across the board. Around here there seems to be a strong sensitivity to "unfair competition" from both local government and the consumer base. Maybe that helps keep the big boys honest.

[BabyPeanut]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('eastbay', 'S')afeway in my town is 2.53 for regular. The big names on the same block are 2.58 and 2.59.

[Ayoob]

No gas. It was a little weird.

[Torion]

No reasons posted at all for the closing?? Where is the station, an urban or rural area? Maybe they're not making enough money so they're closing the station? Are there other stations around you to give you a gasoline supply that compete with this station?

Just very curious, torion.

[Raxozanne]

There is one by me that I just noticed that shut down during the oil hike in September 2004.

There was a news report a month ago where they interviewed an independant petrol station and the guy said 'we get more profit from the sale of a mars bar than with selling £5 of petrol'

[UncoveringTruths]

I know an owner of a Gas Station in Texas that told me he was unable to compete with Wal-Marts Murphy stations, and another larger grocer filling station. He said they were selling .10 lower than he could. He has recently moved into the food industry(Subways) to offset his losses.

When Prices keep increasing we will see more consumers move to the least expensive stations. This will put the Mom and Pop gas stations out of business. It's going to get crowded at the cheaper filling stations.

[Torion]

Last August, southern arizona's gasoline pipeline that comes through Texas broke somewhere underground and we had some shortages. Kinder Morgen is the supplies. The other gasoline we get in Arizona comes from California. We have no source or refineries in the state.

The gasoline was trucked in and the state government said there was enough gas to go around but it wasn't being distributed properly. In any case, it ended in some stations being closed for a few days at a time. People wweren't supposed to get gas unless they had only a quarter tank left--state government suggestion--but it seemed like people filled an awful lot of gas cans as well as their cars at the stations I was at. We had some lines and it was totally unnerving to think the gas wasn't there and available when you wanted it and/or needed it!

this lasted about 3 weeks but it showed how people could behave badly or very well in the situation of gas shortage.

[emersonbiggins]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('UncoveringTruths', 'I') know an owner of a Gas Station in Texas that told me he was unable to compete with Wal-Marts Murphy stations, and another larger grocer filling station. He said they were selling .10 lower than he could. He has recently moved into the food industry(Subways) to offset his losses.

When Prices keep increasing we will see more consumers move to the least expensive stations. This will put the Mom and Pop gas stations out of business. It's going to get crowded at the cheaper filling stations.

[I_Like_Plants]

Not to get gas or anything, but for information. Over the years the ones I've talked to have been pretty decent people, just running a biz and trying to get along like the rest of us. It's a rich source of info on the gasoline biz from at least closer to the "inside", and goodness knows, they're going to have few friends from here on out.

[dmtu]

The community where I live lost a Chevron. I'm betting it was privately owned but not certain. It was the proud owner of the highest pump prices in town.

[CarlinsDarlin]

This was on a local CBS affiliate this morning - they also mentioned that many of the remaining stations have limited purchases to $20 - not allowing everyone to fill up completely, so that they will not run out of gas between deliveries.

Coming to a town near you...
http://www.todaysthv.com/news/news.aspx?storyid=18715

Kathy

[Leanan]

Yikes.

So much for the idea that gas stations are just gouging us....

[ubercrap]

My god, what a poorly written article. The content is interesting, though.

[CarlinsDarlin]

ubercrap,
Agreed. Though in their defense, I should say that many of the "articles" that are posted are nothing more than copies of the broadcast scripts - which are usually embellished during broadcast.
K