My Little Gas Price Survey, 9/16/2005 4
One of my co-workers told me that he once asked a gas station proprietor about price changes. He reports that the proprietor told him he received two phone calls each day, one about 7:30 a. m. and one about noon. I have no idea whether this is an industry standard, but the price changes seem to bear it out.
Yesterday’s prices stayed about the same as Thursday’s, but there was some movement at some of the stations.
No observations from New Jersey today, but the typical situation, where prices in Jersey tended to be 10 to 15 cents lower than prices in Delaware and Pennsylvania because of lower fuel taxes (probably the only example where Jersey’s taxes are lower than those of other states), seems to have gone on hiatus, to paraphrase TV flacks.
Holly Oak, Del., Mobil, $2.99.
Claymont, Del., Exxon, $2.96, 8:30 a.m, $2.89 at 5:30 p.m.
Claymont, Del., Sunoco, $2.96.
Claymont, Del., Getty, $2.91 at 8:30 a.m, $2.89 at 5:30 p.m.
Claymont, Del., Gulf (Cumberland Farms), $2.91 at 8:30 a.m, $2.89 at 5:30 p.m.
Claymont, Del., BP, $2.91 unchanged all day.
Claymont, Del., Gulf, $3.02 unchanged all day.
Claymont, Del., Wawa, $2.89 at 8:30 a. m., $2.87 at 5:30 p.m.
September 17, 2005 at 9:58 am
I’m surprised how little investigative reporting I’ve seen on the topic of how a local station sets prices. I was listening to a radio call-in show in St. Louis once a few years back when a lady called in and said her husband had once owned a station. She said there were basically two standard ways an independent station could buy its gas. As I recall, one method involved a longer term price you were locked into and the other gave you a freer hand in shopping around but also exposed you to more price volatility.
Lowest price I saw in our town yesterday was $2.77 at a Mobil station, of all places. I did not have occasion to drive past Walmart so I don’t know what they did yesterday.
September 17, 2005 at 10:04 am
By the way, Frank, when I click on your Submit Comment button, I get taken to a blank page. Obviously it still takes the comment, but it also leaves the user in no-man’s land. I’m using Firefox 1.0.6; haven’t tried it in IE or anything else.
September 17, 2005 at 3:13 pm
OK, this is a test comment from my daughter’s computer. I’ll let you know if hers does the same thing when I click on the comment button.
My name is George W. Bush and I approved this message.
September 17, 2005 at 7:06 pm
Opie wrote, “OK, this is a test comment from my daughter’s computer. I’ll let you know if hers does the same thing when I click on the comment button.”
Came through just fine.