The corner station retreats almost a full step

In The corner station advances three steps and retreats two, I described how I misjudged the situation, as I expected prices to fall.

Prices ended up increasing slightly instead.  First, the corner station jacked up its price from $3.37 to $3.59 on Monday while the three stations down the street held steady at $3.37.  Yesterday morning, the corner station had lowered its price to $3.49 while the three stations down the street had raised their prices to $3.45.  I had a good idea of what would happen next, which was that the corner station would match them.  The only question was when.  This evening, it had, lowering its price to $3.45.  The net result was that gas got more expensive, not less.  I should have filled up last week.

I ended up putting in only four gallons, as I still expected prices to fall before I needed another tank.  They did.  On Saturday, I saw that the corner station had lowered its price to $3.39, only two cents above where it was a week ago.  I was right when I predicted that "I don't expect gas prices to get any higher during the rest of this week."  They didn't.

As for the local, regional, and national trend, the Gasbuddy widget over at Econobrowser shows that the national average price has resumed its seasonal downward trend, having peaked at just over $3.37 a few days ago and then slid to $3.36.  Both the Detroit and Michigan averages have joined the national average in falling from their peaks.  The Detroit average contined to fall from its peak of $3.45 the day before the last gas price post to today's $3.39, while Michigan's is down to to $3.42 today.  If anything, I expect prices to continue to decrease.