Well, why do you think? Get the bad news out of the way as quickly as possible, then milk it for all it’s worth and only give the minimum back when you absolutely have to.
Or in other words, because they’ll work both ends of the process to their advantage - because they can.
Yeah if you approach it from the other direction of where is there a lot of transportation of product by other means, it can clue you in advance to where there aren’t a lot of product pipelines. For example a disproportionate % of the US large oil barge fleet serves Florida as you can see randomly tracking the voyages of such vessels on eg. Marinetraffic.com. Lots of people and cars and as maps shows no product pipelines to the state, only within it. Another big destination for those vessels is New England (maybe not clear on big map but no complete connection between lines in NJ, Long Island and CT).
Of course there’s still river/coastal barge (and domestic trade tanker in some cases) traffic in areas connected to pipelines, depends the exact capacity and ‘last mile’ type issues. Also of course some US product is consumed close to where it’s refined from local or imported crude, so no strict need for connection to broad national pipeline system. But back to topic, local gasoline prices tend to be choppier, and perhaps just higher on average in such areas.
Randall isn’t teaching anyone anything here. His assertion would only be true if you were leaving work ten minutes early and giving up ten minutes worth of pay. In fact, I hate this whole concept of “my time is worth more than that”. No it isn’t. Your services may be worth more than that, but your time is worth exactly bupkis to anyone other than yourself. Now, if you personally don’t think it’s worth it to you to drive 5 minutes extra each way to save a dollar, that’s fine. But if I choose to make the drive it doesn’t mean I’m “working for less than minimum wage”. Even if it did, it would also mean that by not taking the drive I was working that ten minutes for nothing.
The business about miles doesn’t hold up in the example given either, because A) an extra ten minute round trip is going to be less than a mile, and B) chances are I’m not making a special trip to fill up anyway. I’m likely stopping on the way to or from somewhere to get gas and I’m probably passing both places anyway.
I have known people who would burn 2-3 gallons of gas to save 1 or two bucks on the fill up for a net loss, but they were driving a heck of a lot more than 5 minutes out of the way.
Aside:
I’m not normally a fan of websites where the center scrolls and the edges stay stationary. But that site uses that gimmick to pretty cool effect.
Carry on. 
More directly related to the OP:
I can understand a curiosity as to why gasoline prices fluctuate so often at the pump… (Addressed and answered above)
I can not however, understand the obsession over such, whereas one expends the time, energy, and wasted fuel, in an effort to “save” a few cents per gallon.
My time alone, is worth more than the effort required in staying abreast of constantly fluctuating prices on Gasbuddy etal, in an attempt to discount a full tank purchase by a couple of cents. Not to mention the fuel burned, wear and tear on the car, (and myself) by motoring miles out of the way, to save?.. (I WIN!):smack:
Yeah,
But the edges are “dead”… Perhaps that is why it works.
At this stage of my game, YES it is.
First of all, it’s often more than “a few cents”.
Plus what is wrong with my being curious about the mechanisms behind the pricing habits for this particular product? What is it to you? If I want to be a more informed consumer, then yeah. Isn’t this precisely what GQ is all about?
You must have missed Doug K.'s post (where he addresses why doing so might make sense, for other reasons-in my case several of my fave low-cost stations are hardly out of the way of my weekly transits at all). To that I would add that gas is often a loss leader, and lowering the price might get more people in to buy your Cokes and cigs.
Annnd I am bringing my business to those chains who don’t try to rip me off. Why should I patronize the ripoff artist near me, if all that will do is continue to encourage them to keep their prices high? Yes, this is more a matter of principle than anything else, so sue me. As also indicated upthread, if more people did this, then many stations would no longer be able to make a lot of bucks off of the ignorant.
I at least partly agree with this. One has to consider the value of one’s time in decisions about how much time to spend trying to save money as a consumer. Also the direct cost of saving money (burning more gas to get to a station farther away in this case, but again in general).
However it’s not easy to put a number on it. What one makes per hour working might be a simple benchmark but I agree with you it’s often not very relevant. Many people in today’s economy get a salary (plus bonus perhaps) that isn’t per hour and it’s a subjective evaluation how much more or quicker they can grow that salary/bonus by spending more time in the office. Many who do get actually get paid by the hour are offered a definitely limited number of hours they already work.
For people in those I believe majority categories in today’s employment market the question is really what other non work activity they’d be doing rather then spending time saving money on consumer purchases. If could be spending a few more minutes enjoying and strengthening key family relationships, or a few more minutes watching garbage TV shows or posting on the internet. Very hard to put a single number on it.
Though there are some people who can simply clock more pay, or more hours are likely to yield more direct business or commissions per hour. That easy to see in certain jobs which consist of driving, when it comes to gas (taxi or Uber, how long/far are you going to divert from where the best fares are to get cheaper gas?), but in general a fair % of people work in jobs where more hours, even to the minute, probably means proportionally more income. For them it would be reasonable to calculate ‘value of time’ based on $/hr the hours they do work. But for most people that’s flawed reasoning, I agree.
How often? In my experience, local variances are minimal.
Well, sure… Make the effort to read the (my) previous posts..
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I did not miss any post that “might” make sense.
If I understand correctly, you are concerned with “ripoff artists” taking advantage of you. Keep in mind… You are simply purchasing gasoline at a local vendor… Not hedging futures in the commodity market.
I get premium (you must have missed that part too).
Currently in my county (Duval in FL) there is a about a 35+ cent differential between the cheapest premium (of a well-known brand and not either an El Cheapo station or a club station) and the most expensive (c. 2.65 & 3.09). NOT minimal to me. Even for regular, the spread is c. 30-35 cents.
As also said upthread, if everyone kept a close eye on things, the vendors likely wouldn’t be able to get away with playing the cute little games they play with the prices, simple as that.
Anecdotally, I’ve always heard that ‘gas stations raise prices before a holiday’. And it seems to be true, in my experience. I’ve been low on gas on a Thursday night, but didn’t fill up that day. The next day, Friday of a 3-day holiday weekend, the price had jumped nearly 10¢ per gallon when I did fill up.
Is it actually factual that gasoline prices go up just before & during holidays?
And if so, is this demand-driven (more gas is used by people driving around on holidays) or is just a profit-enhancing price rise by gas stations, because they can get away with it?
Where I live (northern NJ) the cheapest places for premium are maybe $.10’gal less than the OK places. As I mentioned above there’s a station I see that’s way higher, counting outliers it could be $0.30 I guess. Also it’s a bigger difference counting Costco v ‘so so’ prices. We fill up there if we happen to be there when we need gas, ~10miles each way, worth it to shop there IMO but not necessarily just for gas.
On last paragraph I agree in essence, maybe just a stylistic difference in the implied assumption of your wording (I take) that gas stations with above avg prices ‘should’ be charging customers less when the customers don’t care…I don’t see why. And that is the fundamental driver: consumer price insensitivity.
Although for example Exxon/Mobil in our area is always towards the expensive end. They seem to work off a perceived brand image of superior product. So that’s a matter perhaps of consumer consumption of advertising, though gas isn’t all necessarily 100% the same. Another more real factor for me is 93 v 91 octane. Around here basically all premium is 93 and I assume BP (usually cheapest major brand station near my house) or Costco (always cheapest) is close enough to the best. On road trips though I’m sometimes in parts of the country where stations have 91 or 93 (or sometimes where it’s all 91 
) and you can feel the difference in my car on ‘fun’ roads (turbocharged and further tuned up for more turbocharger boost). In those places I’m looking for cheapest major brand 93, not cheapest ‘premium’.
The interesting thing is that those consumers paying slightly more are correct : Top Tier Gasoline Worth the Extra Price, Study Shows - Consumer Reports
It seems that the detergent additives that Exxon, etc, advertise actually make a meaningful difference in engine wear.
Heh. Just wanted to say that I typically get the cheapest premium from the local Mobil stations…
But that’s about ‘Top Tier’ not just Exxon. There’s lots of ‘etc’. At home I buy at either at BP or Costco which are also ‘Top Tier’, and I go major brand on the road* too.
*where I will actually use Gas Buddy sometimes, but not in a search for absolute lowest, but rather lowest major brand 93 octane that’s not far out of my way.
Which shows how local this is.
BP was always the highest by far in MO. Like 30-50 cents more than the other brand name across tbe street, much
less the off-brand stuff 3 miles away.