The corner station awakens, advances, then retreats

I concluded Corner station goes into suspended animation in No Man's Land by suggesting that I take a break from watching gas prices.

[T]he corner station charged into No Man's Land last Thursday, raising its price to $3.99.  By Saturday, it had dropped down to $3.95.  Normally, it would have matched the rest of the stations by now, but it hasn't.  The reason is simple; the station is closed for construction, so it's not changing its price.  It went into suspended animation on the battlefield.  I think this series might go into hibernation with it.

Last Saturday, the corner station opened up again and promptly raised its price to $3.99.  Off to No Man's Land!  By Sunday, it had lowered it to $3.95.  Yesterday, it had matched the rest of the neighborhood stations at $3.85.  Throughout this entire episode, they kept their prices where they have been for a couple of weeks.

According to GasBuddy, that's exactly where they belong, as the metro Detroit average has been $3.95 for the past three days and the local stations normally are a dime cheaper.  Prices aren't going down any time soon.  If anything, they might go up based on the slight increase in the national average from $3.63 to $3.66 during the past week as well as the increase in crude oil prices Calculated Risk noted two days ago.