Gas prices spike after Ike

I noticed a couple 20 cents higher than the one by my house. Until today. Now it's only a 10-cent differential.

 

No it's not. It's called gouging. State governments need to lay the hammer down on this bullshit.

 

Gas prices have gone up a dollar a gallon here over the last 10 days or so. From 3.49 to 4.49 at one station I saw, although others on the same street just blocks away were at 4.09. Still, that's a 60 cent jump.

I can't imagine how that's anything but price gouging. I'd be willing to bet that the 4.49 station owner is either hoping his price will spur the others in the area to raise their prices to that level -- 'Hey, Casey's raised its prices. Wonder if they know something we don't? Better raise our prices just to be safe', or the owners are actually conspiring to raise prices and he just changed his sign first.

Also, you know that once the Texas refineries come back online, prices will not fall by 60 cents to a dollar in 10 days the way they jumped that much in that amount of time, which again leads me to believe in gouging.

 

I just heard the best example from a friend in South Carolina. He and the SE went to lunch at a Five Guys. Came out 45 minutes later and the station had increased prices by 70 cents a gallon.

Gouging? Um, yeah.

 

Is it gouging? I'm not sure. I tend to think it's more our own stupidity than anything else.

The situation as I believe it to be after doing a brief amount of research.

* Hurricane Gustav on its way to New Orleans. Hell storm. Gonna destroy everything in its path, etc and so on.
* Oil companies evacuate their rigs and some refining companies shut down their facilities.
* Gustav comes and goes, but production was slowed and halted just enough to put a slight strain on supply.
* Big, Bad Hurricane Ike churns away and is worse than Gustav. Its approaching the heart of oil production and a large amount of the nation's refining capacity.
* Thursday afternoon, the AP moved a story on how wholesale gas was going for near/over $5 a gallon.
* MSM picks up on this.
* People wanting to save money naturally run on the pumps, which mind you - have a strain on tight supply.
* Enter in supply and demand. Tight supply + High Demand = Higher Prices (especially if people are going to pay for it).

I don't like it, but I dont think its gouging.
People making the run on the pumps made this mess worse than it was.
Had people remained calm, we may have seen only a return to Summer gas prices. Now we're looking at record high prices, especially in the SE USA.

 

Not that anybody on this thread want an actual discussion of economics, but it's worth bearing in mind that a gas station prices a gallon of gas based on the anticipated cost of the next gallon of gas they have to purchase.

To price a gallon based on an anticipated spike in price is not evil. It's the way businesses are operated that don't want to go out of business, seems to me.

 

that's incorrect, dog. gas stations sell gas based on what they bought it for, just like any other business. why in the world would you suggest otherwise?

 

How in the HELL is it not price gouging when the price per barrel is going down, but the price per gallon keeps going UP?

 

Gas stations with older supplies have cheaper prices because they paid less for it?

 

Publix had Diet Pepsi for $1.25 for a 2-liter bottle today, and it's $1.79 at Winn-Dixie.

What the hell's going on here!!!

 

Welcome to my world the last 3 months.

The lowest I've seen it is $3.83.

 

Do what I do: Don't drink soda. Problem solved!