There is this phenomenon in the larger cities in Aus where petrol (aka “gas”) prices fluctuate on a regular schedule each week. Tuesday* is cheap day. Around lunchtime on Wednesday the price shoots up by about 10 or 15 percent, at all petrol stations. It then gradually lowers over the week, until it’s back down to the minimum by next Tuesday night.
The Australian Consumer Affairs webpage seems to suggest this is mostly a local thing, but does say it has been spotted in the wild occasionally in other countries (mentions the US and Germany).
So - do you have a petrol cycle where you live?
*Well, it used to be. According to my husband, who tracks these things somewhat more meticulously than me, the whole cycle’s shifted back a day recently, and done other odd things.
I live in the US, and I have never noticed a cycle like you are describing. Gas price fluctuations are much smaller than the 10-15% single-day swings you’re talking about. If the prices boom or crash, it’s usually on a much less temporary basis. Gas prices climbed steadily for 10 years, finally reaching higher than 4 dollars a gallon. When the prices crashed, it was a slow kind of leisurely downward trend that took months to get back below 3 dollars, and has been hovering at a pretty stable price that does not seem to be affected by the day of the week.
Even the “cheap” day varies from city to city. What I like is that the petrol companies call it the “discounting” cycle. Since, I am sure, they are never selling it at a loss I think it is really the “price gouging” cycle - sell it at a fair price one day and then just ask more and more for it.
In South Africa, the petrol price is controlled, and so there is no variation unless announced well in advance by the minister, resulting in long queues at the pumps on the evening beforehand so that Joe Citizen can save his R40 ($4) on this tank of petrol…
When I lived in Canberra, it was a fortnightly cycle. Prices peaked every second Thursday, timed to coincide with the fortnightly public service payday.
Yeah, it’s been noted here in Canada, well Ontario, well Ottawa anyway.
I think Thursday evenings the price usually drops and then it’s back up again for Friday. It can certainly be as much as 10% but usually more like 3, 4, 5%.
To be honest I don’t really pay much attention to it. I get gas when I need gas, regardless of the price or the brand.
I have certainly seen a similar cycle in the U.S., back in my college days. The price would go down a penny or two at a time (back when gas prices averaged 25 cents or so) and then suddenly shoot up overnight, to then slowly go down again. However, it was not a regular weekly interval – sometimes there would be 4 or 5 days between spikes, sometimes 8 or 10. It was a game of “chicken,” with us cash-strapped students hoping to guess when the spike would come so as to get the most for our money.
I have not been observing the prices nowadays. I just get gas when I need it at a station for which I have a credit card.
As you mentioned in your OP Aspidistra, it happens only in the major cities. We poor schmucks in the regional areas have no recourse to discounting of any kind…unless you include the 4c per litre Safeway/Woolworths docket cut. Seeing as the bowser-prices are already around 10c per litre above the city prices anyway, it makes little-to-no difference.
Ours (in Western Canada) cycle according to the seasons and if there is a holiday / long weekend coming up. Prices increase in the summer and the Thursday or Friday before a long weekend. As an example, fuel right now is about $0.89/litre but was $1.30/litre in the middle of last summer. It will go up as much as $0.10 or more the day before a long weekend. And they SAY it’s not the gas companies trying to make a profit, it’s just the market. Yeeaaahhhhh.
