I won’t reprint the email I just got from a pal. It wasn’t the old ‘don’t buy gas this one day’ or even the more recent one that I heard about ‘only buy gas, no groceries etc.’.
This one suggests that major portions of the population (assuming of course you could get their cooperation) refuse to purchase from the top two producers. It goes on to speculate that if the top two saw a drastic reduction in their own sales, they may drop their prices down, causing, of course, the other ones to do so too.
what would this do? (I mean other than really screw over the ‘little guy’ gas station owner?)
If demand shifted to the little guys, they would find themselves short on supply, and their prices would rise in accordance with some law I read about somewhere.
I’d like to add that this can never be anything more than a thought experiment. People need their gas to get to work, the grocery store, etc. and will never stop buying it.
“Hello, boss? I just called to say that I won’t be coming to work today, and maybe not tomorrow either because gas just went over $3 a gallon in my neighborhood. Bye.”
People will find a way to buy their gas come hell or high prices. What if they start charging for air tomorrow, and by 2010 it costs 10¢ per breath. Should we all literrally hold our breath until the price goes down?
Re-reading this, I see that my tone is somewhat snotty. It’s not directed at you wring, but it would be directed to anybody who sent me such an email.
OK, so let’s suppose that this works perfectly, and everyone in the country does this. The two top suppliers get no business, but everyone else gets that much more (since people are still using the same amount of gas). The top two might decrease their prices, but that wouldn’t matter, since nobody is buying them anyway. If people do start buying those brands again, to take advantage of the prices, then the prices will go back up to normal. Meanwhile, since all of the other companies now have more people buying, they’ll be able to raise their prices. Effectively, by taking the two biggest out of the picture, you’ve reduced the supply, while demand stays constant. Decreased supply and constant demand leads to increased prices.
A more workable solution would be for people to just avoid the most expensive brand, whatever it may be, and buy the others. Then, since nobody ever wants to lose business by being the most expensive brand, everyone’s prices will stay low. This would actually work… And, of course, this is exactly what most people do, anyway, without even needing some e-mail to tell them to do it.
An even better solution would be for folks to just use less gas. Don’t drive when you can bike or walk, and don’t take the SUV when the economy car would do. This way, demand drops, supply stays the same, so price drops. Notice you never see e-mails telling folks to use less gas?
no problem - note, I neither reprinted the email here, nor sent it on to anyone.
But it did get me curious about what effect (if any). I agree that, on a general basis, people will not stop consuming gas, however, after the gas shortages way back when, seems that fuel efficiency was a primium concept.
I saw that same email printed off at work. Problem is that the large companies own a lot of the small gas stations… there has been a little gas station on my corner for years, and just recently the company that owns it gave it a facelift and put their sign up (no, they didn’t just buy them out - they were the real owners all the time). It makes sense to own more than one outlet but stick up another name. When your big company pisses everyone off, they’ll go to that other little outlet to buy their stuff, thinking the’re screwing you, but playing right into your hands. When the small outlet becomes unpopular, they’ll go back to the big guys, and so on. Unfortunatly, they’re buying from the same group of people at all times. Even if there is an independent small gas station, where do they get their gas to sell to us? The big oil companies, of course - who are friends with the big gas stations (or the same for all I know) and they wouldn’t sell to that small indepentdent guy anymore (their lawyers could come up with a legal reason not to). Also, these companies with the billions they have can wait a lot longer than me, so such a thing wouldn’t last long enough anyways. And don’t forget that the oil/gasoline people cooperate to set the price of gas anyways…OOPS! I FORGOT, PRICE-FIXING DOESN’T EXIST, RIGHT??? - Identical prices that go up at the same times at every gas station in town are all just a big coincidense!! These and all the other arguments posted make this silly little spam email a joke; funny thing is watching people who get really stoked thinking it will actually work… lots of chuckles there.
If there is ever a wonderful miracle-cure to a national problem, you won’t find it in your computers’ bulk mail asking you to send it to 10 more people.
if that was directed at me, no, the friend involved is a muscian (does a one man band act that’s obscene & hirlarious, even if you aren’t a drunk make under the age of 30)