# Prices at the Pump -- what's happening where you are? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 1, 2005, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prices-at-the-pump-whats-happening-where-you-are/319652 "2005-09-01T23:30:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![elmwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmwood/32/3060_2.png) [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2005, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prices-at-the-pump-whats-happening-where-you-are/319652/41 "2005-09-03T15:21:59Z")
I hear reports about prices going down all over the country. As of a half hour ago, that’s not the case in Buffalo. It’s mostly $3.79 to $4.10 around me, but a few stations are at $3.19; a sign that there’s DEFINITELY gouging going on. I can’t help but feel a bit self-centered thinking about outrageous gas prices in a part of the country experiencing dry, sunny weather, while there’s people who are begging for just WATER in Louisiana and Mississippi. ---
**Author:** ![pudytat72](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@pudytat72](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pudytat72)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2005, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prices-at-the-pump-whats-happening-where-you-are/319652/42 "2005-09-03T15:59:04Z")
> [@JRDelirious](#): > > **Update** > > Back down to start-of-week prices today, after the Commonwealth government applied some plain old brute force: An actual profit-margin cap on both wholesaler and retailer, enforceable with $10K/instance fines, that’ll last until they convince the Secretary to _his_ satisfaction that they’ll be good boys. Doesn’t guarantee it won’t go up, but it forces any rise to be proportional to real cost increases for the duration. (And yes, we can do that, we got the law and Court decisions to back it up Great Idea!!! I am not opposed to a “reasonable profit” for these people, but these price increases are crazy. “Supply and demand” is worthless when the supplier is artificially manipulating the supply and the average person can’t do much to decrease their demand. I drive (alot I think: 25,750 miles last year) as a part of my job. I drove 809 miles this week. I decided a long time ago that I would rather drive and have the work than sit at home and not get paid. The mileage deduction for tax purposes for that distance is $303.37 (2004 mileage paid at 37.5 cents per mile-will increase for 2005 I’m sure) so even with increasing gas prices, I feel like I’m coming out ahead. ---
**Author:** ![MaddyStrut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/dbc845/32.png) [@MaddyStrut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaddyStrut)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2005, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prices-at-the-pump-whats-happening-where-you-are/319652/43 "2005-09-03T19:17:43Z")
I also heard that prices were going down. That hasn’t happened here. I filled up Thursday for $2.879. Today the same station had a posted price of $3.419. ---
**Author:** ![kniz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c37758/32.png) [@kniz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kniz)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2005, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prices-at-the-pump-whats-happening-where-you-are/319652/44 "2005-09-03T19:35:41Z")
Yesterday, we drove to Memphis. Our local store had $2.56 gas, but I was on full. When we got to Memphis we passed a station that is usually cheap and it had a $3.28 sign out. Down the road was a station at $2.89 but we kept going. The highest we saw was $3.39, but the scary thing was that stations with $3.29 gas had signs out that they were out of gas. I was resigned to paying $3.29 just to get back home, when we sighted a station with $2.79. We filled up after standing in line and it took forever to pump since the tanks were running low. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Landshark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/77aa72/32.png) [@Landshark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Landshark)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2005, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prices-at-the-pump-whats-happening-where-you-are/319652/45 "2005-09-04T02:32:36Z")
Today I passed several gas stations here in San Diego and all were selling regular grade in a range of $2.91 to 2.97 per gallon. I went to fill up this afternoon at a Costco and they were at $2.91, which startled me because they’re usually at least 10 cents below the going rate. ---
**Author:** ![scr4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2005, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prices-at-the-pump-whats-happening-where-you-are/319652/46 "2005-09-04T03:04:55Z")
Huntsville, Alabama, at the Chevron station closest to my apartment: $3.00 yesterday, $3.25 today. Someone told me diesel is still at arond $2.60 - is it the same elsewhere? ---
**Author:** ![Kuizelemartz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e19b73/32.png) [@Kuizelemartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kuizelemartz)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2005, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prices-at-the-pump-whats-happening-where-you-are/319652/47 "2005-09-04T03:17:04Z")
I live half way between **pestie** and **ShibbOleth**. My job requires about 1200 miles a month of driving. I just went to the corner station and paid 3.30 for premium (my car doesn’t like medium grade). $30 bucks into a car that cost $10.00 to fill it when I bought it in 1988. I didn’t shop around for the best price, I just got a little worried I’d have problems finding gas on Tuesday. Our company that manages the gas reimbursement seems to be on top of the situation, but they will not tell us how much our gas credit card increase will be until the middle of the month. I see people quitting if they don’t give us enough money to cover these crazy prices. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2005, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prices-at-the-pump-whats-happening-where-you-are/319652/48 "2005-09-04T05:20:50Z")
> [@Cervaise](#): > > Seattle: the station on the corner of my block has $2.95, up from $2.40-something last week. As of this afternoon, the corner station is completely out of regular. Premium and superpremium are $3.19 and $3.30-something. ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2005, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prices-at-the-pump-whats-happening-where-you-are/319652/49 "2005-09-04T23:13:11Z")
Update as of Sunday, September 4th: Prices I’ve seen today for regular vary from a low of $3.09 to a high of $3.799, but that last was a hell of an outlier. Most stations have it posted in the middle teens and 20s. I filled up my Saturn for $3.17/gallon this afternoon. ---
**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2005, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prices-at-the-pump-whats-happening-where-you-are/319652/50 "2005-09-04T23:15:39Z")
Petrol prices in my suburb have fallen over the last couple of days. My local service station was charging A$1.33 per litre on Friday. Last night (Sunday) I noticed it was down to A$1.27 per litre. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2005, 7:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prices-at-the-pump-whats-happening-where-you-are/319652/51 "2005-09-05T07:37:17Z")
> [@Cervaise](#): > > As of this afternoon, the corner station is completely out of regular. Premium and superpremium are $3.19 and $3.30-something. As of earlier today, the corner station was fully stocked, with regular having dropped to $2.79 and superpremium at a bit over $3.00. ---
**Author:** ![Mycroft\_Holmes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a5b964/32.png) [@Mycroft\_Holmes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mycroft_Holmes)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2005, 8:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prices-at-the-pump-whats-happening-where-you-are/319652/52 "2005-09-05T08:44:05Z")
> [@Mycroft Holmes](#): > > The Netherlands is up to 1.51[sup]5[/sup] for a liter of regular unleaded as of today. [Cite.](http://www.shell.com/home/nl-nl/html/iwgen/app_profile/nl-nl_hoeveelkost.html). At the current exchange rates that works out to: US$ 7.01 per US gallon. :eek: An update: this weekend I had to drive to Frankfurt am Main and back. When I filled up the tank in the Netherlands it cost me 1.54[sup]9[/sup] for a liter. That works out to: US$7.34 per gallon. To point out how expensive that is: Frankfurt and back is 800km. That’s 497 miles. My car gets 30 mpg on the highway, so I needed 16.57 gallons, so that’s US$ 121.66 for roughly a 500 mile round trip! :eek: In other words, I pay roughly 25 cents for every mile purely for gasoline. That’s not even counting insurance (US$ 122 per month), tax (US$ 32.50 per month) and normal wear and tear. Well, at least now I remember why I take the bike and train to work, and am planning on selling my car next month. It will be better for my wallet if I just rent a car when I really need one. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prices-at-the-pump-whats-happening-where-you-are/319652.md?page=2)