The corner station loses another battle in the gas price war

In the previous installment, I noted how gas prices were going down.

The good news continued on Monday as the Associated Press reported that Michigan gas prices fall 4 cents from last week with a statewide average of $3.65/gallon.  As for how that played out locally, prices dropped exactly 4 cents from last week's installment of the gas price rollercoaster from $3.59 last Thursday to $3.55 at all four local stations Tuesday morning.  As I wrote before, "[t]hat's good news, although I still expect the price to go up between now and July 4th in small steps."  Just the same, maybe New Deal Democrat at The Bonddad Blog is right and the oil choke collar is finally loosening.

By the weekend, prices at all stations had fallen to $3.49.  Then the corner station decided to shoot its price up to $3.65 on Tuesday, the day I needed to fuel up.  I only put in half a tank, as I was sure that prices would fall.  I should have driven down to one of the three stations a few blocks away.  None of them raised their prices.  Their resistance to increasing prices had its effect.  The next day, the corner station had dropped to $3.59.  Yesterday, it had matched the other three stations at $3.49.  I filled up my car's gas tank.

Speaking of my car, it's about to turn over another thousand miles.  Look for an update on that tonight.