You base this rant on Sam’s club? Why not go to a real gas station.
you will find very few places that still sell conventional unleaded. I buy about five hundred thousand gallons of fuel a year from a local transporter picking up at the Marathon Rack here in Indianapolis. As it was explained to me, they are only allowed to sell a small percentage of their total fuel sales in conventional unleaded and have to pay a surcharge when exceeding that ratio.
There used to be a small difference between conventional unleaded and the 90/10 ethanol-gasoline formulation. When pressure by the government raised that differential to about 20 cents I cleaned both of my UST’S as required and switched over to the Ethanol/gasoline mixture. You have probably been buying gasoline with ethanol in it for a long time without knowing it. However, do not buy the 85/15 product unless you have checked to see if your car will handle it.
Sam’s club is 10c/gallon cheaper
And your definition of a "real" gas station is one with higher prices? I suppose you buy from the contractor with the highest bid, too, since he obviously must be better since he charges so much more.