Replies

It may or may not be price gouging. However, I would really love to know how the BP station down the street from me can jack up the pump price SEVENTEEN CENTS overnight. That's the biggest jump I've seen since Katrina hit. Someone please tell me how that's not gouging. Compare that to the Exxon station across the street that raised it's price five cents. I'm having a real hard time understanding how that's not gouging.

Why don't you ask them? One is probably an independent owner who has to buy from whichever supplier he can that day - may not have a long-term contract, or may have just had one for cheaper gasoline expire on him and was unable to re-negotiate a better price.

FWIW, oil did go up $2 a barrel within the past few days for July delivery, so the station owner has to factor that in, looking ahead. The Exxon dealer may have a company-owned station or may be able to make more profit on the convenience store inventory inside so he can advertise his gasoline price as a loss-leader.

There are a lot of different factors to consider. Ask them!

All oil companies have stronger and weaker operational business units. Depending on their costs and operating efficiancy ratios in differing markets, prices rise and fall at different rates in different markets.

They were probably caught with short tanks. If their tanks are less than half full raising the price to be able to afford to refill them requires a larger hike than if the tanks are mostly full. If their costs go up 5 cents a gallon and they only have half the stock to get that money with, and not enough in the war chest to make up the other half, then they have to drive their sale price up 10 cents. Life in retail when the vast majority of your sales are 1 product can be stressful, everybody in the gas business fears price spikes when the ground tanks are low.

What moron is paying 17 cents more than the station across the street? Put him in protective custody!

I would really love to know how the BP station down the street from me can jack up the pump price SEVENTEEN CENTS overnight. That's the biggest jump I've seen since Katrina hit. Someone please tell me how that's not gouging. Compare that to the Exxon station across the street that raised it's price five cents.

Maybe the BP station had held off increasing their price for as long as they could in the face of rising costs from their supplier, while other stations gradually raised their prices. Regardless, how is it "gouging" if there's a lower-priced competitor right across the street?

It may or may not be price gouging. However, I would really love to know how the BP station down the street from me can jack up the pump price SEVENTEEN CENTS overnight. That's the biggest jump I've seen since Katrina hit. Someone please tell me how that's not gouging. Compare that to the Exxon station across the street that raised it's price five cents. I'm having a real hard time understanding how that's not gouging.

I'm having a hard time understanding how the BP station did any gouging at that price? If gas was $.12 a gal cheaper across the street, how did the BP station sell any? Why would anyone pay $.12 a gal more than they had to? If they did, they must have wanted to. Why?

If BP increased 17 per gallon and Exxon 5 per gallon, nobody is forcing you to buy BP. Nobody is forcing you to buy a major brand.

I consistently buy the off brand that buys on the spot market. 80% of the time they are cheaper than any name brand. 10% of the time they are the same price. 10% of the time they are more expensive. Even then, I support the "little" guy.

It is a mystery to me why more people don't buy on price. They bypass the cheap gas; buy the expensive brand; and then complain about the price. Where is the motivation to drop the price when people don't buy on price?

BTW, all 5 of my cars run equally well on cheap and expensive gas. The performance difference is between the EPA imposed blends. I get 10% less gas mileage on the Chicago blend than the downstate formula. Thus in Chicago I burn 10% more of a cleaner fuel for a net gain of zero in pollution prevention and a 10% impact on the energy shortage. Furthermore, requiring a different blend in Chicagoland strains the limited refining capacity and causes a 5% increase in price.... all due to the EPA and not the gasoline companies.

Totally apart from the oil drilling / supply issue, abolishing the EPA and its savant bureaucracy would reduce the price of gasoline by at least 15% (45 cents on $3 per gallon). It won't bring back 1970 when I paid 13 per gallon and got free glassware and greenstamps to boot from Purple Martin stations. But it would be a move in the right direction.

The superstition is in thinking that somehow the EPA regulations improve the environment. No, they just give power to the spiritual alchemists in the bureaucracy.