I don’t know about the rest of you but here in Kansas our gas prices are already starting to go up. There are lines forming at the stations over a block long and in some areas of Kansas the price of gas is almost $3/gallon!! I’ve been looking for information about gas prices on the Internet but haven’t found anything yet. The only reason I know the price is going up here is because we have agents all over the State and they’ve called in to let us know what’s going on.
This really ticks me off. For one thing I don’t think there’s a need to raise gas prices just yet. For another thing, these gas stations have already bought their gas for (just estimating here) $1.50/gallon and are charging me $1.69/gallon. That’s fine… they need to make a profit. But to start charging me $3.00/gallon for gas that they purchased at $1.50/gallon is f**king ridiculous!
I just came back from picking my daughter up at school. I noticed that gas prices here in Cincinnati have stayed static, no price gouging, yet. But on the BBC site I saw that the FTSE (London stock exchange) lost GBP 67 billion today. The only gainer seemed to be British Petroleum, which went up quite a bit, if I understood the article correctly.
I considered for a bit to make some huge money on oil stock futures. But I couldn’t live with myself if I profited from this tragedy. I am hoping that there is a special place in hell reserved for people who do.
Sit tight, Rachelle. I confidently predict that gas prices will go right back down again in a week or so. It’s just panic and market forces–people are frightened and are willing to pay extra, so gas stations charge extra.
And I am so confident of this that when The Cat Who Walks Alone asked me just now if I wanted her to fill up the car with gas on her way to work, I told her “no.”
There may be minor problems with supply lines (for example, all the ATM machines here in my medium-sized Downstate Illinois town are not working today, as the WTC was “banking central”), but by and large, it will be Business As Usual after a week.
But, hey, ain’t capitalism grand? Any excuse to raise prices…
My husband went to the grocery store. He called from a pay phone about oh, half an hour ago. He hadn’t made it to the store yet. He said that the people on the roads here (Flint, MI) are driving like it’s this city that was bombed, and that gas prices were just going through the freaking roof.
Things are still pretty calm here in Downstate Illinois. The Cat went to get orange juice, since we were out, and she said there weren’t any lines of people buying toilet paper or anything. She observed that there wasn’t any apple juice in the coolers, but that’s not unusual for Kroger.
As Bonzo put it when he came home from school just now, “Sometimes you’re glad you live in Buttcrack, U.S.A.–no worries about potential targets here.”
I’ll have to look when I go out in a bit, but if this is happening all over, I think I’m very glad I filled my tank this morning. Actually, by my calculation, I filled it just about the time the second plane hit.
But I shouldn’t have to buy more gas for at least a week. To profit like that from something like this is unspeakable.
Well, regular at my favorite station (a QuikTrip in Alpharetta, GA) was $1.179 yesterday afternoon, and was $1.339 at 6:30 EDT this morning. No further price hikes during the day, as far as I’ve seen.
Note that this was 2+ hours before the WTC/Pentagon attacks, so unless QT employs psychics, there’s probably no connection.
Lines are building up here in the Chicago suburbs. My ATM card didn’t work in the pump (because of the WTC or because they’re brand new pumps and just not set up, I don’t know). However, I got into a 3 car line. When I filled up and left, the line was out of the station and going down the road. Paid the morning price of $1.78/gal though when I passed the Meijers station the price had gone up already from $1.78 (same as the Speedway I use) to $1.99/gal for unleaded.
Since the convenant refinery fire in Chigaco, Wisconsin has had the highest prices. A bit over a dollar eighty for weeks, compared to the country’s average of a dollar fifty something. Any state that let’s the gas prices rise to over two dollars a gallon should have all it’s legistatures replaced. There is no reason for the price gouging to take place. I could see a high price in New York in the damage zone, but states away is bullshit. It’s not like oil producing country’s stopped production, or that any refineries went up.
A number of Dopers in #chat have mentioned gas prices of $3-5/gallon.
My recommendation for people faced with that sort of disgusting gouging: gas-and-dash. Any scumbags trying to capitalize on this situation should be…well, something bad. I’m a law abiding citizen, but that is simply wrong.
When my husband finally returned home (he did not make it to the store–the roads were just crazy, he said), he told me that he’d stopped to get gas, because he has to work tonight. He paid $2.20/gal.
That is just so (insert your favorite expletive here) rude!
There are lines at the pumps in Jackson, MS and reports of panic buying throughout the state. At approximately 6:30 p.m. CST, Gov. Ronnie Musgrove declared a state of emergency in order to enable anti-gouging ordinances. Rumors of prices over $4.00/gal.
Hubby says one of the truckers who just delivered a load to the warehouse says prices are up to discourage stockpiling. Makes sense, except it doesn’t seem to be working.
We’re at $3 a gallon here in Eagle Grove, Iowa, and lines have formed at the pumps. Rumor is that the price tomorrow will be double that.
I would much appreciate some good advice about what to do to help us get through this. ?? Carpool to work or work from home, give blood, donate to the Red Cross, leave cash in the bank, what else? Anyone know?