Friday, May 3, 2013

Corner station retreats into trenches after charging No Man's Land

In April fools on lower prices as gas price rollercoaster shoots up, I chronicled last month's attempts to raise prices as oil prices dropped.
When I went out this afternoon, the prices had shot up 20-30 cents in one day.  The three stations a few blocks away had increased their prices to $3.69, while the corner station once again raised their price more aggressively, hiking it to $3.79.
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Unless this rally in Brent continues, I expect prices to drop a bit.
I was proved right, as I wrote in Flooding bumped up the gas price rollercoaster.
The prices are already starting to drop.  The corner station has matched the rest of its competitors and is selling gas at $3.69, a drop from the $3.75 late last week.
Since then, the prices have gone up and down twice.  First, the corner station started another round of price raising and failed, as they posted prices of $3.89 two weeks ago.  The other stations didn't bite, and by the end of the week, everyone was selling for $3.65.

This week, the corner station charged out into No Man's Land again and managed to hold it until today.   On Monday, they were selling regular for $3.79 while the three stations down the street had prices of $3.75.  That lasted until this afternoon, when the three stations dropped regular down to $3.70.  By this evening, the corner station matched their price.  I can take comfort in competition working to keep prices down.

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