QUESTIONS:
1. Isn’t price-fixing illegal?
(Yes. But there’s a workaround. See below.)
2. If price-fixing is not occurring, what accounts for the in-unison price rises?
(I spoke with the owner of a single gas station store. She said that most of their money came from beer, cigarettes, lottery tickets and other stuff not related to gas. But if her price was a few cents below the station across the street that drove all the traffic to her station until she ran out. It could take a week to get a tanker. It is illegal (in Florida, at least) to change the price until you have bought new gas at the higher price. During times of crisis each night a tiny tanker comes around, pumps in 100 gallons and leaves a ticket for a gas sale at the new price. She raises her price. The Circle K manager told me they subscribe to a service and change their price several times a day based on some formulae. (Don’t know how that works with the law.))
3. Do they think we don’t notice, or care? (Stores make a few cents per gallon on gas. Their objective is to use gas sales to generate traffic to sell beer and lottery tickets.)
4. Do they notice that at least a few of us so order our lives that we never need buy gas on the day of the simultaneous price hikes, or for several days thereafter? Are they accounting only for customers who, due to length of commute or the nature of their work, must empty their tanks over a couple of days and must buy gas when they can get it regardless of price? (They literally don’t care about gas sales for the reasons above. They just need gas to generate traffic.)
Yep, gas station/mini-mart net profit margins are about the same as grocery stores, and grocery store margins are awful! (~2% net margin).
https://retailowner.com/Benchmarks/Food-and-Beverage-Stores/Gas-Station-Convenience-Stores
The real $$ is in railroads, banks, real estate and cable TV:
http://pages.stern.nyu.edu/~adamodar/New_Home_Page/datafile/margin.html
Apple, Inc. does pretty good at 26% too! ;-)