Near where I live 2 gas stations are on the same corner. One is always 10 cents higher per gallon for regular. Most times stations that close match each other on price.
Anyone know why the 1 station doesn’t bother to price match?
Nicer convenience store in one?
Able to collect “points” in one?
One a brand name and the other an independent?
One easier traffic-wise to get into?
One taking a cut in prices short term to drive the other out of business? (That would go along with things like convenience stores - jack up the prices there instead)
the nicer one is cheaper. It’s also the brand name one. Both are easy to get into.
the higher priced one closes early too, maybe around 7 PM.
You think that’s a big difference?
In my town, we’ve currently got two gas stations a block apart from each other where the price at one is 75 cents greater than at the other.
Is it possible that the cheaper one contains 10% ethanol?
depends. from what I remember of my days as a pump jockey (later morphing into being a garage monkey) in high school, stations affiliated with a major oil company like Shell, BP, or Mobil have minimum advertised prices (MAP) per gallon. the regional rep would inform the station owner of the MAP periodically. you had some leeway to go higher, but couldn’t go lower.
besides, it’s not like stations make any money selling gas anyway.
Unless labeled otherwise, it’s safe to assume all gasoline now contains ~ 10% ethanol.
Is there any small print next to the (much larger) price-per-gallon number at the cheaper station? I have a similar situation at the corner near my neighborhood and the cheaper gas comes with a caveat. That caveat being in order to enjoy this lower gas rate, one must receive all 3 different discounts that are available (things like discounts for paying in cash, etc.)
do they sell the same fuel?
different qualities, additivies?
Are they in different municipalities? There is a big difference in local tax on gasoline in my area. This can cause price differences in stations across the street from each other.
Are they both the cash price (or both the credit price)? Or is one a cash price and one a credit?
We have the same thing at a freeway near where I live. The only thing I can think of is cheap gas is by an onramp headed south to Denver and the expensive gas is by an onramp to head north to Ft Collins.
Maybe they don’t care to be in the gasoline business?
There’s a service station on my way to work that looks fairly busy changing tires and oil and whatever else those places do. But their gas pumps look 30 years old and their sign says gas is $3.75/gal while the rest of the stations in the area are all under $2.00. I think they’ve just given up on the gas station angle.
Also, there are two gas stations a block away from each other where the one is always at least $0.10 higher, but the more expensive one is right next to the interstate off-ramp. So I figure they can get away with it simply by being the first station everyone sees from the interstate.
When I lived in Fresno there were a pair of stations like that, across the street from each other, in a commercial area at a major intersection. Both were major brands.
What I always wondered was: Why do any customers at all go to the station with the 10-cent higher gas? There was always plenty of business there.
Neither place works on cars. They both are gas + typical 7/11 type places. They are in the same town. They are not near an interstate.
The expensive independent place across from from the cheap respectable chain is a money loser used for tax deductions that will give shady people information on where to go that day to make a shady purpose. Either that or it has been closed for a long time and you haven’t looked closely enough.
Is the more expensive one closer to a major highway? I’d imagine that travelers aren’t likely to spend a lot of time searching for lower gas prices – they’ll fill up at the first station they see and get back on the road. Given enough business from a busy highway they may not need many local customers.
A family friend owns a service station. When his underground storage tanks are getting empty, he has to buy gas from his supplier at whatever that day’s wholesale price is. A large chain like SA has their own large storage facilities and can therefore wait until prices are at a low ebb before replentishing their supplies.
So, “They can sell gas for cheaper than I can buy it”. This is one possible explanation for the OP.
Sometimes locals don’t bother to search for lower prices. I buy my gas where I do because the locations are convenient for me, which for me means I don’t have to deal with difficult traffic getting in and out of the place and there is usually an open pump. I could save about $1 if I went to Sam’s Club and waited in line for 5 minutes to get an open pump, or I could go to the Shell station across the street and be in and out right away. I spend the extra buck.
Are you sure about that? Because that sounds like illegal price fixing, which has been illegal for the last 100 years or so.
no it doesn’t. because you (and a lot of other people) don’t understand what the fuck “price fixing” is. “Price fixing” is where competitors in a market collude and agree not to bid below an agreed upon price floor. a manufacturer having a “minimum advertised price” is not and never has been “price fixing.”
if it was, Apple would have been fucked six ways from Sunday a long time ago.