Why do the oil companies think we're stupid? [Gas prices ending in 9/10]

[Hari_Seldon]

@Senegoid

If their prices are 10-20 cents less than other nearby stations, they don’t need to play the 9/10-cents game to attract customers!

But there’s also this: I always get gas of a certain well-known brand, whose prices are always, everywhere a few cents less than other nearby stations. I wish everybody (or nearly everybody) would always go to the cheapest nearby station, even if it’s only cheaper by a cent or two. If we consumers would all do this consistently, it would force stations into perpetual price wars, to the benefit of all consumers collectively.

And yet … When I see stations, even on opposite corners right across the street from one another, with prices differing anywhere from 5 cents to 15 or more cents, there are still always plenty of customers at the pricier station? Why? Why do they do that?

I pay 2 or 3 cents a litre more than the station across the street for two reasons: first the one I go to is serviced; but most importantly, it is a service station where I have my car serviced, change to/from snow tires, etc. and they treat me well and I don’t want them to see me across the street.

[CookingWithGas]

Here is a compendium of Straight Dope discussion on this:

Unofficial GQ FAQ

[digs]

@Shagnasty

I think a better question is why some people are so highly attuned to gas prices in the first place? 1/100th of a cent is meaningless but so are cents yet I know lots of (not poor at all) people that will drive a significant distance to save 50 cents on a fill-up. There is nothing wrong with being frugal in general but they don’t treat everything like that…

I’ve always looked at that as an age thing. My nonagenarian mother and her retirement home friends will go on and on (and on) comparing gas price rumors:

“Well, Millie swears she found two twenty-nine nine at a gas station in Prescott.”
“Oh, I bet she means Churchill’s. They’re occasionally the cheapest, but sometimes Ptacek’s beats them by a penny.”
“Ptacek’s always has those amish puffy rolls. My aunt loved thos…”
“Churchill’s was NEVER two twenty-nine nine! They’re never as cheap as the Kwik Trip across the river. Two twenty-nine nine… that Millie…”

Keep in mind these stations are at least an hour’s drive away from where these ladies live. Are they really road tripping to save less than a buck?