You may have heard of a hurrican called Rita. As she is about to hit my state, gas prices are goping up. Yesterday the price gouging hit the Dallas, Texas area. Prices went up and up and up all within the course of a day. Stations claimed they didn’t have regular gas so you had to buy premium. I work in Addison (just call it Dallas to those who aren’t from around here) and live about 20 miles north and east.
Today, however, I have been informed that gas is actually hard to find. There were lines this morning but I’ve heard from three people this afternoon telling me about the dearth of gas in the Dallas metroplex. Meaning no gas. No gas! The hurricane is not here yet. We’re just going to get wet. That’s it. There are people here from the Houston area as they had to evacuate.
But that doesn’t account for NO GAS! Is our nation’s oil/gas supply that tenuous that the threat of a hurricane destroys our gas supply?! Or is this the advent of the oil/gas companies getting ready to supply us with gas but only with a price tag over $4.00 a gallon?
People are likely just stocking up during the impending storm, like they do with milk, eggs, and toilet paper. You probably have shortages of them as well.
No, see I get that for the Houston area. This is Dallas. We’re going to have rain. East of here they are going to have a metric buttload of rain. We’re going to be just fine except for a bit of flooding.
You know what, if supplies are running short (and I guess they are), then I have no problem with companies charging an arm and a leg in the short term. Then maybe only people who actually need the gas will buy it, instead of paranoid suburbanites topping off the 50 gallon tank of their Ranchero*.
How come we call it “gas gouging”, anyway? Isn’t it supposed to be the beauty of capitalism that businesses get to charge whatever the market will bear for their product?
I don’t think it is supply and demand as I’m pretty sure they can get gas here fairly easily.
And none of that explains WHY THERE IS NO GAS! I’m almost willing to be screwed at the pump if I can fill up tonight.
::Smarty who has about 3 gallons in her tank and is broke broke broke::
Yeah, but you know how panicky people are. Any mention of “snow” around here, no matter if it’s an inch or a foot, and there’s a run on milk.
We did have a few gas stations close down after Katrina, either because of short supplies or the owners didn’t want to pay their supplier such a high price.
So… you’re simultaneously complaining that gas is too expensive and that there’s none left to buy? Clearly the prices aren’t high enough.
It’s really simple. The demand for fuel and basic staples goes way up before a disaster like this both because actual uses go up in the short term (you didn’t think that stream of cars running out of Houston was running on Sunshine and Gummi Bears, did you?) and because people stock up because they don’t know how long it will be before they can easily buy those things afterwards. Deal with it.
I thought that GW had declared a state of emergency in Texas, and I also though it was illegal to price gouge during a state of emergency. Can anyone clarify this?
It’s not as extreme but we’re getting slightly gouged up here too. In fact I got about the last “cheap” (if you call $2.68/gallon “cheap”) gas Wednesday. I filled up at that price and went to the grocery for about a half hour. When I drove home past the same station the price had gone up to $2.76/gallon. It’s illegal in Wisconsin to change gas prices more than once in a 24-hour period.
sry posting from phone. at 6th station found gas. fuck u I can complain about both. price being high is irritating no gas is shocking. and “deal with it”? yeah i’ll just walk 20 miles home. u try it.
Fucking A. Here in Dallas, the news is reporting what seems to be half the stations are out of gas altogether.
Fortunately I have the option of walking to work. It ain’t a pleasant walk, but it’s doable, so I walked today. I’ll walk around wherever I need to until this blows over.
I certainly cannot speak to the gouging situation in the OP’s area, as I am in Houston.
The reports we heard on local TV indicated that many of the Dallas area residents were “hoarding” gas because they thought there might be shortages due to the high numbers of evacuees from here heading north. Many thousands of folks were stranded on the sides of freeways because they had no fuel and none of the stations along the evacuation routes did either.
I suppose I can understand the “hoarding” thing given the situation down here, but price gouging should be a capital crime anywhere.
Price gouging has nothing to do with normal supply/demand circumstances. Price gouging is when you see somebody in difficult circumstances and charge them way over your normal price for water, gas, a hamburger or some other essential need.
Those caught price gouging should be prosecuted to the legal limit.
Shortages like the gas shortage in front of and along the evacuation route are caused by a sudden, unpredictable increase in demand.
For a few days after Katrina, gas stations around here put a $30 limit on sales, so everybody could have some, but nobody could truly hoard. At least, that was the idea.
I is Smart, hope you can find some gas soon. Considering that Rita is going to pretty much miss your immediate area, the stations should have more gas pretty quickly.
Good luck!
I bought gas in Carrollton last night. My son bought gas in Euless today. I drove around Euless today and I didn’t notice gas lines or closed stations, so my guess is that we have plenty. Come on over.
Considering how many thousands of people fleeing the coast arrived in places like Dallas on fumes after being stuck in lengthy traffic jams, it wouldn’t surprise me in the least if a big reason for the price shortage is them filling their tanks once they get there. That’s probably the biggest reason for the shortage, I would suspect.