When I last reported on the local gas price war, the corner station was camped out in No Man's Land.
Tonight, the three stations a few blocks away are still at $3.65, while the corner station has only dropped to $3.85. No one is at the $3.69 I predicted last week. About the best I can do is point out that the average of three stations selling at $3.65 and one station selling at $3.85 is $3.70. Yeah, I called the mean price to within a penny, but that's not what I really meant or expected last week. I still have two days for all four outlets to equalize this week, but I'm beginning to wonder. I'm having trouble remembering when the corner station last defended a price increase this stubbornly.Friday evening, the corner station dropped its price to $3.79 when I was next door. I went into the pizza place and it was still $3.89, then returned back to my car a few minutes later and the price had dropped a dime. Monday evening, the corner station had inched down to $3.75, where it was Tuesday morning. Tuesday evening, when I went to get more pizza, it had finally dropped to $3.65, matching the three stations down the block, none of which had budged for two weeks. That's where all four stations remained today.
GasBuddy shows that the local situation of resisting increased gas prices is widespread. The national average has barely budged above the $3.65 of the previous report, remaining steady at just below $3.66 for the past week. This is the longest that the U.S. mean has not increased since the second week of February. As for the Detroit average, the metro area topped out at $3.79 a week ago and has declined to just above $3.74 today. The neighborhood stations are no longer underpriced and so should stay at $3.65 through the weekend.
By the way, prices are still at or below where they were at this time last year. Last week, the comparison was with 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.So the corner station wasn't there yet last week, but the other three were four cents a gallon cheaper.
This week the comparison would be with the first week described in Corner station retreats into trenches after charging No Man's Land.
[T]he 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 is exactly where prices are now, so no year-over-year increase. The next question becomes "will prices stay at or below where they were a year ago next week?"
On Monday, [the corner station was] 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.Not only the local and national retail trends suggest that the answer will be yes, but the underlying wholesale prices do, as well. Follow over the jump for the details.