Gas Price Discrepancies

In the town where I live, regular gasoline cost $4.14 a gallon today. Yet, 30 miles down the road in a neighboring town, regular gasoline cost only $3.99 and it was the same brand too! That's a 15 cent discrepancy in only 30 miles! Why the gas costs more here than there, I don't really know, but with that kind of discrepancy, it seems someone is trying to rip people off.

Gordon,
whatever the price, you got to add 9/10 of a penny to it. Getting that extra penny may not seem like much, but it has been worth millions to the oil industry. I suppose the psychology of $2.99.9 is still under three dollars, right?

It's still a 15 cent discrepancy in only 30 miles, fractional pennies included.

It seems to be that way everywhere. It's all about location and what they can get away with charging. Ironically, aside from locations next to a freeway, the highest prices seem to be in the poorest neighborhoods.

All in favor of saving gas in these tenuous times, raise your foot.

Jim Woods
www.ultrasw.com/jwoods

Good one Jim!

I remember years ago that Safeway (one of the big grocery chains) was targetted because they too charged the highest prices in poor neighbourhoods. The bulk of their customers did not have vehicles and could not afford to leave the neighbourhood to get to better prices. That was the first of many studies that I have read where they have shown how families living at the poverty line are not able to afford the food necessary to follow the national food guidelines for healthy eating (Canada Food Guide we call it). It's the same now with gas. Today on our main street, gas is 10 cents per liter cheaper at one end than it is on the other, and the stations are only about 2.5 kilometers apart. I don't know what that converts to in miles and gallons, but it is weird.

Pam, I'd like to claim that was original with me but I think I first heard it somewhere back in the gas crunch of the '70s. Still seems appropriate, whomever the author.

Jim woods
www.ultrasw.com/jwoods

I've noticed that prices tend to be higher in smaller towns and lower in larger communities. I guess the gas stations will just keep charging us the highest price they can get away with.