Welcome to The Daily Gripe, a new little feature on Average Joe American. Every day I find myself ticked off for one reason or another. Whether it's something stupid someone does, or something I do, or whatever else, The Gripe finds a way to get me every day.
Take yesterday, for example. I drive some eighty-five miles one way to work and back every day. I get about thirty-four miles to the gallon, but I still burn through a lot of gas. I fill up my tank at least twice a week, some weeks three times, and it can get expensive. I have to keep an eye out for the best price along my route every day. Usually, I find that price about five minutes from work, where the price for a gallon of eighty-seven octane gasoline has been $2.799 all week long: fully twenty cents a gallon less than every place else. That twenty cents a gallon can save me as much as seven bucks a week.
So I drive into work yesterday -- Friday -- knowing I'll need to stop for gas on my way home. No problem. Until I round the corner on my trip home that very afternoon and find they've raised the price of their gasoline to $2.999, just like every place else. Why? No one else in town had a twenty cent per gallon increase. Did this one lone gas station see a rise in their costs?
Of course not! More likely, they saw a rise in their profit potential for the weekend, and raised their price just in time for the July vacationers and weekend travelers to fill up. Could any commercial business outside the energy industry get away with a fifteen percent increase in prices without a cooresponding cost increase somewhere? Just in time for a spike in business? I think not! That really gripes me! I won't be a bit surprised to see the price go back down on Monday or Tuesday. I'll let you know what happens.
Joe
Saturday, July 22, 2006
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
2 comments:
Here's the thing with gas stations. The mark-up on fuel is EXTREMELY small. Only a few cents a gallon. There is not enough profit on the gasoline to stay in business.
Further, most gas stations buy their fuel from the same suppliers. Each station pays essentially the same rate for its fuel as nearly every other station.
So when you find one place where the fuel is cheaper - especially 10 cents cheaper - he is probably taking a loss on the fuel just to bring customers into his store. Then he can make a profit by selling Mountain Dew, Twinkies, and coffee.
That's where the REAL markup is - in the Twinkies and the coffee.
My guess is that this guy cannot sustain those low prices as a routine, but that you will see his prices rise and fall from time to time.
But you're going to pay either way, or he simply can't stay in business. It's either 10 cents more for fuel, or 10 cents more for that Twinkie.
I understand the pricing structure at a gas station. My gripe isn't with the price increase, really, It's more with the timing of the increase: just in time for increased weekend driving.
Post a Comment