How do gas stations have the same price changes at the same time? (Page 3): Me three.. No CITGO here either.

marvkaye

hj wrote:

I agree... NO TO CITGO!

Me three.. No CITGO here either.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

I bet it's mostly competition. If they go too high, they'll lose business. If they go too low, they'll lose profit. They must all be in the same "ballpark" to attract customers.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Hal81 wrote:

It was the tax there was much lower in NJ.

Right. When I was driving south, I'd leave home with an almost empty tank and fill up in NJ. Now, NJ gas is more expensive than ours.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Most car makers recommend using Top Tier gas. It has a p[articular additive package. The Honda dealer and several local mechanics recommend filling up with non-ethanol gas once a month, like Stewart's premium.

https://www.pure-gas.org/

2Dragons Loc: The Back of Beyond

hj wrote:

I don't call jumping gas from $2.39 to $2.59 over night being competitive and they all seem to do it at the exact same time within hours of one another. Yes, dropping price would be trying to remain competitive.

A lot of the pricing depends on what the station paid for their last delivery.

sodapop Loc: Bel Air, MD

We have one Shell station, right off Interstate 95. that charges $1.60/gallon more than everyone else. Needless to say no locals buy any gas there, but the poor out of state suckers that pull off the internet in dire need of fuel unexpectedly pull in. Been thatway for years

ssiretire Loc: Warsaw, KY

hj wrote:

Can someone in the petroleum industry (not guesses by everyone else) explain how gas stations all change their prices, up or down, at the same time? Seems like collusion to me.... and they use any excuse to jack the price including rumors on the world stage not facts.

It's been a while since I worked at a gas station but 2 things determined our prices then. One was when we took a gas delivery. The price we paid was a determining factor. Second. We were located in an area of several local competitors. Sometimes we would drop to increase our draw.

fourlocks Loc: Londonderry, NH

[quote=billnikon]Most gas stations are on the same SAME GAS PRICE network. All the stations are hooked into a central feed. The network changes the price of gas, and if your gas station is connected to the network, your gas price also changes automatically. It is a giant conspiracy against us.

This is correct, it's all controlled through a network so the prices all jump at the same time. HOWEVER...I asked my local friendly gas station owner why, when all gas stations' price jumps 20 cents per gallon within minutes, it takes two weeks to slowly drop the price, penny by penny, down 20 cents. He said while they have no control on price increases, each station can choose if, or how slowly, to drop their prices after receiving a price drop from the central network. Instead, station owners keep the price high to maximize their profit and only drop the price little by little when competition pressure from the station across the street forces them to do so.

al13

pendennis wrote:

A piece of the puzzle, is that four gas stations o... (show quote)

Agree on all your points. A friend owns multiple gas stations and said the same. He breaks even on fuel keeping his prices lower than most competitors but that is the draw to bring customers inside where the profit resides. Venezuela is a great example of socialism at work.

olemikey Loc: 6 mile creek, Spacecoast Florida

hj wrote:

Can someone in the petroleum industry (not guesses by everyone else) explain how gas stations all change their prices, up or down, at the same time? Seems like collusion to me.... and they use any excuse to jack the price including rumors on the world stage not facts.

Capitalism, with a healthy dose of opportunistic price fixing/price control, and some greed sprinkled on top (and no taxes if they can manage it).

sourdough58 Loc: Maine

Price fixing

paulrph1 Loc: Washington, Utah

hj wrote:

Can someone in the petroleum industry (not guesses by everyone else) explain how gas stations all change their prices, up or down, at the same time? Seems like collusion to me.... and they use any excuse to jack the price including rumors on the world stage not facts.

Went to CA and on the way the prices were lower but on the way back they were jacked up and all did it at the same time. Hmm.

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

If the price from the distributor goes up, the gas stations have to be sure they have enough money for the next delivery so they raise their price to compensate. The gas stations probably get less than $0.10 from each gallon they pump so it's a pretty low margin operation.

Toby

I remember when prices were based on costs. If the cost when up you didn't change the price until you had used all of the old cheaper product. The world is moving faster today. Not saying it's worse, just different.

olemikey Loc: 6 mile creek, Spacecoast Florida

Toby wrote:

I remember when prices were based on costs. If the cost when up you didn't change the price until you had used all of the old cheaper product. The world is moving faster today. Not saying it's worse, just different.

Ahhh, the good old days...... for me it was a 68 GTO (hot car of your choice) and $.25 gas. Before the other countries became wise to our sucking up their oil for pennies a barrell, they were just about giving gasoline away. Sure did fuel an automobile craze though, didn't it!