Gas Price Conundrum, Revisited…
A couple of days ago I wrote of the mysterious divergence of gasoline prices in close proximity. On the return leg of that trip I made a watering/dewatering stop in Cookeville, TN. I had not planned to buy more gasoline until I got back to the point closest to home where I had seen the $2.37 price a couple of days ago. But I could not pass up what I found at a big Exxon station just off I-40: $2.16/gallon!
Later, to my surprise, 40 miles further down the road the price was still $2.37. Arriving back in the Nashville area I found prices still hovering in the $2.60s.
All comments to the previous post are noted and appreciated. But under the circumstances, none of those really explain what’s going on here. Some of the comments from other parts of the country and planet suggest this is not a local phenomenon due to some hillbilly having not learnt good ‘rithmetic. A 20 - 25% price swing across town cannot be justified by any amount of magic and smoke and mirrors.
Aine Livia is incredulous that we might complain about our gasoline prices as she reports that on her side of the Atlantic, “Petrol is £5ish pounds a gallon.” That converts to around $9.50 US/gallon. Johnno reports Australian pricing at the pump of around $3.55 US/gallon. Let’s not get too bogged down in whose definition of a gallon is used or what the exchange rate is on a given day or whether the grades and quality of gasoline are equal. That would distract us from the issue and the real questions at hand. Almost ten dollars per gallon in the UK? I would see a bicycle or moped in my future. Or a mule…
US gasoline also seems like a bargain when we compare with a couple of other common purchases. Bottled water, which has been the rage here for a few years, costs from $.79 to $1.39 depending on brand (snob brands with French sounding names always cost more - go figure), type of store, size of bottle, and other factors. Crunching the numbers yields an average cost per ounce for … water … at about 10 cents. This comes to an outrageous $12.80/gallon. That’s the average. For the bon vivant varieties, $15 to $20 /gallon would not be unusual. Makes gasoline at $3.00 or $5.00 seem cheap.
Also consider the average on-the-go cup-o-joe. The lousy coffee served in strofoam or paper cups at convenience stores and fast-food joints costs on average about 12 cents/ounce. This puts coffee, bad coffee mind you, at over $15.00/gallon. The rich arabica blends and roasts served in better restaurants at $3 to $5 per cup (refills gratis, of course) could easily top $30.00/gallon.
Hmmm… wonder if my Subaru Outback can be tuned to run on French Roast…
3 Comments so far
Not meaning to one-up you in Gas Price Conundrum-Land, but:
On my daily commute I drive down a north-south stretch of street about a mile in length; at either end is a Conoco-Phillips, and the middle station is a Quik-Trip (a regional convenience-store chain). The southmost 66 is at the intersection of this street and a major east-west route. The Quiktrip usually matches the price of the southmost 66, but the northmost 66 is always about 5 cents/gallon higher.
The southmost station gets much more traffic than does its northmost brother, so it can afford to charge less. I guess. It’s just unusual to see the disparity in pricing in such a short stretch of street in the same section of town.
Already have both, bicycle and moped, and if I could only get the hand of those inline skates, I’d be away. A Mule is a good idea, or a donkey, however I think there’d be questions in the neighbourhood, like who does she think she is riding round on a donkey, and does she expect us to lay down palms before her.
I don’t think it would be wise for me to mention how mucha cuppa coffee costs, o’oer here….
We should be running our cars on milk now. It’s mostly cheaper and if we kept a cow around we could run our cars for free after a slight expense for hay and vet bills, and visit from Mr. Bull and well just forget it. I say give the gas away until its all gone.