Got gas at $2.02

Oil has been down 50%, for what? 1-2 yrs.

So why... hasnt anything else gone down ?

Take one operation expense-transportation. Trucks and rail.

Nothing I buy, personal or business, has gone down. Only gas.

It does seem like whenever gas goes up, that's the excuse for other prices to also go up. As you point out, the converse isn't true.

The gas station I use is a Costco on Route 9 North in Marlboro New Jersey. ..
It really is the least expensive gas around for a very long way. ..
Their website says the price at any given moment. ...
I have been very grateful for this...
I can't complain about the price of gas when I'm paying less then anyone else around. ..

Teddy

My county doesn't allow big box stores to have gas. Grrrrrr.

But gas points are nice.

Yea, I recall the excuse for food, milk, and just about anything going up was "Gas is soooo high...waaaaaaahhhhh"

Those prices never came down.

rocketsaway said:

So why... hasnt anything else gone down ?

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Whats the difference between a new wife and a new job? After a year the job still sucks.

rstaff3 said:

But gas points are nice.

View attachment 275648

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Points help pretty well. I just got ~17.5 gallons of 93 octane for under $25. I had to bypass one Shell station that was charging 70 cents more for 93 over 87 to find one that was only 40 cents greater.

To the OP, wait until oil prices go up again (they will) and everyone raises their prices again due to increases in transportation costs.

Put it this way...no one forecasting commodities is predicting a fall in price. When a lower price occurs, they recast to show the price appreciating from the new low. They aren't "wrong" because it hasn't happened yet.

Companies always forecast improvements YOY or quarter by quarter. They recast when the market changes.

Gasoline is a little weird because so much of it is regulated. Just ask Pennsylvania...

https://www.api.org/Oil-and-Natural-Gas-Overview/Industry-Economics/Fuel-Taxes/Gasoline-Tax

I'm just glad gas has actually followed oil down, somewhat. I've never studied commodoties, and I'm not really convinced that even the people involved really know all of what's going on. I think they do a certain amount of making it up as they go along.

Every time I've heard media stories about the subject, it seems contradictory. I'm less and less surprised as I get older to realize these people don't understand it any more than I do, and they're just basically talking to hear themselves talk. I've heard many times that "The price of gasoline has very little to do with the price of oil." But when oil goes up, gas sure seems to go up in a hurry. Even before oil goes up, if there's a hurricane or Mideast uprising starts, gas will shoot up that day. Even though I know good and well the station hasn't even received any tanker shipments since it was cheaper. It's always much slower to come down, if it does at all. Apparently, whatever emergency causes them to be on the cutting edge of world events and jack up prices, doesn't apply to prices on the way down.

The gas price predictions seem about as accurate as the hurricane season predictions. Again, I'm just glad it's down now. And maybe I shouldn't say this out loud, but I'm surprised the gas taxes haven't gone through the roof under the pretense of "saving the planet."

I work in the C store industry as an HR manager. Our margin on fuel is a penny and a half per gallon. We don't get rich off of gas. That's why the Wawas and Road Rangers of the world (and us) offer more than just fuel. 18% less use this year alone due in large part to increased fuel economy. The refiners make all the money and control the price to a certain extent. But the fact of the matter is that prices on fuel go up and down based on local competition. Some "big" competitors (read WalMart) will undersell fuel pricing just to get business. We smaller chains have to match to be competitive. So we take a loss on fuel. WalMart gets its fuel from one refinery, a very large one, who doesn't care if they take a short-term loss, as long as long term it means more money in their pockets. Beer caves, designer coffee, and cook to order food is where our margin is, not in fuel.

As to the original issue, my belief is once we get "used" to things being higher priced, they won't come down. Manufacturers know that and use it to their advantage.

Mike

rocketsaway said:

Oil has been down 50%, for what? 1-2 yrs.

So why... hasnt anything else gone down ?

Take one operation expense-transportation. Trucks and rail.

Nothing I buy, personal or business, has gone down. Only gas.

Click to expand...

Greed and competition... It's too easy to drive to another gas station, so there's competition in the market place to bring the price down.
But notice how quickly it jumps whenever there is an excuse to raise it... football season...refinery repairs... mid-east flare-up...
I think we're dealing with an oligopoly here that has realized that the American consumer will take it... and so they aggressively mark up, but float back down to market levels again.

Election day is over.......Gas prices go up!

JD

You guys have to step up your gas points game.