Gas goes below $3.00

timwinters said:
Jesse,

I
For example, near one of my current projects in Branson there are two gas stations across the street from each other. One is consistently $0.25 to $0.30 higher than the other (on Friday they were $3.09 and $3.39).
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Don't you just love the Branson area. The station out by Stonebridge is always 25 cents high than any of the stations in Branson West. I don't understand why people keep buying from this guy when you can drive the 1.5 miles to town and save the 25 cents.
 
timwinters said:
Jesse,

I hope what you really do is keep track of the cost but don't let it bother you. If not, you may be costing yourself quite a bit of money.

For example, near one of my current projects in Branson there are two gas stations across the street from each other. One is consistently $0.25 to $0.30 higher than the other (on Friday they were $3.09 and $3.39). Both are "name brands". I'm always amazed that just as many people seem to buy gas at the one with the higher price.

Apparently many people literally don't look at the price.

I won't drive across town and spend $5.00 to save $0.03 per gallon but I do track "the neighborhood" stations' prices and fill up at the cheapest one...which is typically the same one.
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Actually, I really don't look. I buy gas at basically the same gas station and I remember about a year ago it being similar in price to others. Basically all my gas is 'reimbursed'.
 
timwinters said:
Jesse,

I hope what you really do is keep track of the cost but don't let it bother you. If not, you may be costing yourself quite a bit of money.

For example, near one of my current projects in Branson there are two gas stations across the street from each other. One is consistently $0.25 to $0.30 higher than the other (on Friday they were $3.09 and $3.39). Both are "name brands". I'm always amazed that just as many people seem to buy gas at the one with the higher price.

Apparently many people literally don't look at the price.

I won't drive across town and spend $5.00 to save $0.03 per gallon but I do track "the neighborhood" stations' prices and fill up at the cheapest one...which is typically the same one.
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While it is true you can save a bit of money, Jesse's point is one that I think most people fail to see.

Gas is not a 'commodity' anymore, it is a necessity, period. You HAVE to have it to go to work, get food, go to the doctor, etc. So while it may behoove someone to look around at all the corners on their normal stop, driving around trying to save 10 cents a gallon may not be worth it because of the gas that is spent.

Not too mention, even if it were $10 a gallon, people would pay. There is NO alternative to gasoline.
 
There are a number of on-line resources that track the price of gas and diesel at local stations and are updated often, reflecting near current prices. I take a quick glance at a few stations in a 5 mile radius around my house, work or route and invariably see a 25-30¢ price difference. At 30 gallons (of diesel fuel for me), the up to $9 savings per fill-up is worth a minute on the net and perhaps a mile or two out of my way, if necessary.

I also just keep an eye open on the prices of the stations I pass by regularly - there's definitely a pattern to their prices and the less expensive ones seem to always have the lower prices.
 
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tdager said:
While it is true you can save a bit of money, Jesse's point is one that I think most people fail to see.

Gas is not a 'commodity' anymore, it is a necessity, period. You HAVE to have it to go to work, get food, go to the doctor, etc. So while it may behoove someone to look around at all the corners on their normal stop, driving around trying to save 10 cents a gallon may not be worth it because of the gas that is spent.

Not too mention, even if it were $10 a gallon, people would pay. There is NO alternative to gasoline.
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Not only that--it most certainly is not worth my time to be looking all over for cheaper gas and then driving out of my way to get it to try and save a dollar or two.
 
tdager said:
So while it may behoove someone to look around at all the corners on their normal stop, driving around trying to save 10 cents a gallon may not be worth it because of the gas that is spent.
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I think that's exactly what I said.

By the way, I saw $2.79 today and most stations are at $2.83 here.
 
2.99 today. dropped twice through the day.
 
$3.47 in Morristown TN. this morning. Glad it's still warm enough for the bike.
Ron
 
mikea said:
You would assume wrong. The retail dealers have always barely gotten the ~10 cents a gallon. The producers and distributors make sure of that. For one thing the oil company tells the operators of company-owned stations what to sell gas for.
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Mike,

I wouldn't count on it. In WI, the stations are required to mark it up a certain percentage (32% I think, might be 36, but it's in that range)... And our gas is cheaper than yours.
 
Everskyward said:
That's my attitude too. Besides, I think driving out of my way to find cheaper gas is a bit self-defeating.
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Depends on the price difference. Milwaukee and Chicago use the same blend, and for some reason in the summer of 2000 the prices on it went nuts - We were the first ones above $2.00/gal.

For a while there, I had a spreadsheet where I could enter the prices per gallon in Milwaukee and Madison, and easily see whether it'd be cheaper to fuel in Milwaukee, or to drive all the way to Madison, fuel up, and drive back (including the fuel burned along the way - I didn't care so much about the time back then).
 
flyingcheesehead said:
Mike,

I wouldn't count on it. In WI, the stations are required to mark it up a certain percentage (32% I think, might be 36, but it's in that range)... And our gas is cheaper than yours.
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That's interesting, because I know that in Illinois the profit margins were around pennies per gallon, certainly less than a dime. At least back in the early 80s, when my dad was an accountant for a firm specializing in fuel and C-stores.
 
tonycondon said:
2.99 today. dropped twice through the day.
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I guess I picked the right weekend to go to Iowa! My last tank cost $3.79 up here, which was at the beginning of the Ike upswing (prices had been down to $3.61 2 days before that). Yesterday, I fueled up for $2.99 in Ames, and then topped it off again in Tama. Up in Dubuque, however, it was still around $3.25/gal (I think the range I saw was $3.22 to $3.26).
 
$2.94 this morning here in Ames. I was on fumes last night but decided to wait till this morning to fill up. As I pulled in to the station, the guy was changing the price down $.05. :) With all that extra money I saved on gas by waiting, I decided to buy myself a Pepsi, thus stimulating the economy due to lower fuel prices. :D Economics in action!
 
tdager said:
Not too mention, even if it were $10 a gallon, people would pay. There is NO alternative to gasoline.
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Yes and no.

For people that HAVE to drive to get to work, you are correct, they have no other option but driving.

For people that live in a town with a public transportation system, those buses will be full. It is already happening with $3-4 gas here. I work part-time for the city transit bus system and on several of our morning routes we have had to double the number of buses on those routes (from 3 to now 6 buses on a few routes). During the second week of classes, we had our busiest day ever in the history of the system - and it was a bright sunny warmish day. I hate to think of how many units we'll have to put on the road once the snow starts flying and nobody is willing to walk to class.
 
Dean said:
Don't you just love the Branson area. The station out by Stonebridge is always 25 cents high than any of the stations in Branson West. I don't understand why people keep buying from this guy when you can drive the 1.5 miles to town and save the 25 cents.
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Interstate prices I would assume (I haven't looked at a map). It's the same way all the way along interstates as I've seen at least. Here in Ames, the station <1 mile off of I-35 is ALWAYS 5-10 cents higher than the first 'in-town' station which is only ~2 miles farther down the road. If you go another 2-3 miles into town, you get another 5 cent break. Paying for convenience to interstate. Oh yeah, and did I mention that all of the stations I am comparing are owned by the same company (Kum&Go)?
 
CJones said:
Interstate prices I would assume (I haven't looked at a map). It's the same way all the way along interstates as I've seen at least. Here in Ames, the station <1 mile off of I-35 is ALWAYS 5-10 cents higher than the first 'in-town' station which is only ~2 miles farther down the road. If you go another 2-3 miles into town, you get another 5 cent break. Paying for convenience to interstate. Oh yeah, and did I mention that all of the stations I am comparing are owned by the same company (Kum&Go)?
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Closest Interstate to Branson West is 35 miles north at Springfield, MO. This station is out in the county between Branson and Branson West. Just 1.5 miles outside Branson West were the city tax is .05cents higher.
 
tdager said:
Not too mention, even if it were $10 a gallon, people would pay. There is NO alternative to gasoline.
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While this is quite true, the price of gas definitely changes our habits and what we drive. There are quite a few more scooters and hybrids on the road today in this area and far less 90# soccer moms driving around solo in Expeditions.
 
CJones said:
Yes and no.

For people that HAVE to drive to get to work, you are correct, they have no other option but driving.

For people that live in a town with a public transportation system, those buses will be full. It is already happening with $3-4 gas here. I work part-time for the city transit bus system and on several of our morning routes we have had to double the number of buses on those routes (from 3 to now 6 buses on a few routes). During the second week of classes, we had our busiest day ever in the history of the system - and it was a bright sunny warmish day. I hate to think of how many units we'll have to put on the road once the snow starts flying and nobody is willing to walk to class.
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Where do you live? You do realize that almost half of the U.S. lives in areas of 200,000 people or less. Mass transit in those areas is no where near adequate for most people.
 
smigaldi said:
Still arounf $3.60 here. I was just in St, Pete, FL and it was $3.40. Oil keeps dropping but we are not seeing the prices drop as fast. But if oil goes up a dollar that evening gas prices are raised. Funny how that works. :no:
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Tell me about it. Funny.....not. :mad:
 
tdager said:
Where do you live? You do realize that almost half of the U.S. lives in areas of 200,000 people or less. Mass transit in those areas is no where near adequate for most people.
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Ames is a city of about 50K from sept. to may and 20K through the summer. however thanks to the university we have a really really good public transit system, probably better than any other city in the state.
 
tdager said:
Where do you live? You do realize that almost half of the U.S. lives in areas of 200,000 people or less. Mass transit in those areas is no where near adequate for most people.
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Ha. You're talking to someone that grew up on a cotton farm 15 miles from the nearest commercial business - which happened to be a mom-and-pop gas station in the middle of the country - we were >20miles from the nearest grocery store. That's why I qualified my statement by saying "For people that HAVE to drive to get to work, you are correct, they have no other option but driving."


tonycondon said:
Ames is a city of about 50K from sept. to may and 20K through the summer. however thanks to the university we have a really really good public transit system, probably better than any other city in the state.
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Correct. Within our city system, ONE of our busy routes carries as many annual passengers as the entire Des Moines system. While not ALL city transit systems in the country are doubling their ridership, most systems across the country are seeing a rise in demand for their services - WHERE AVAILABLE.
 
CJones said:
$2.94 this morning here in Ames. I was on fumes last night but decided to wait till this morning to fill up. As I pulled in to the station, the guy was changing the price down $.05. :) With all that extra money I saved on gas by waiting, I decided to buy myself a Pepsi, thus stimulating the economy due to lower fuel prices. :D Economics in action!
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and this evening it was down to 2.89!
 
$2.99 in Austin. I have a half tank left so let keep dropping.
 
Darn it! I was enjoying the high fuel prices since we have a contract $3.19 rate and there was way less commute traffic :(
 
Just before the hurricane, the big hedge funds started buying gasoline futures. Of course, when the credit markets crashed, they had to sell their "winners".....so the fuel futures, which everyone had begun to short, dried out and many many zillions were lost.

$87/barrel.

The southeast is a delivery problem!
 
bbchien said:
Just before the hurricane, the big hedge funds started buying gasoline futures. Of course, when the credit markets crashed, they had to sell their "winners".....so the fuel futures, which everyone had begun to short, dried out and many many zillions were lost.

$87/barrel.

The southeast is a delivery problem!
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Typo Dr., it closed at $77 today. :yes:

There are still some spots in the SE with shortages but thankfully we here in middle TN are finally beyond that.
 
#3.35 tonight. Not bad for California.....

Personally, I think these lower gas prices will only hurt us in the long run. People were starting to buy more fuel efficient and smaller cars, and the development of alternatives was really taking off. If the prices go down now, that might slow those developments because people are too short sighted to realize that the price of oil will be at a very high level again as soon as the economy recovers....
 
CJones said:
Saw it $2.79 on east side of town tonight.
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And as of this morning, there are spotty stations with $2.74 - including the ONLY FULL SERVICE station I know of - anywhere.
 
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