Gas soars past $4 at some Rochester-area stations

The $4-per-gallon barrier was breached today at several Rochester-area gasoline stations. via Democrat & Chronicle

[i am bored]

Okay, here comes a typical woman question, but hopefully someone can shed some light on this.....

why is it that some gas stations have higher prices than others ? The article states that somehit the $4/gallon already WHILE we have others that are still 15-20 cents cheaper ?

Just curious......is it greed because they can ?

Plus this station as ALWAYS been one of the highest along with the one at Island Cottage and Latta Mobil,so its well worth the trip down latta to Hess on Dewey or Sunoco for the significant difference.

Hess/Sunoco/BJ's have my permanent business so i haven't had to pay $4/gallon yet, why should others.

Why though ??

[sandy4514]

Because it's not only the Arabs who are lining their pockets. On our main road there are two stations about five miles apart. Last Saturday, the one furthest out was charging $3.89 per gallon, while the one closest to town was at $3.74!!! 15 cents difference, and I don't understand why, either. The cost goes up every time a barrel of oil comes into this country at a higher and higher price, we hear on the news every day about how the price of a barrel went up today to $120. SO, if it's all coming in from OPEC at this price, why is there such a BIG difference from station to station? Because they aren't the only ones lining their pockets and we suffer while they proudly announce their quarterly profits and the "government" refuses to do anything about it while they "say" they are watching out for price-gouging!! It's maddening, it's sickening, it's frustrating because we consumers can do nothing but pay, pay, pay.

[i am bored]

Thanks Sandy - i figured it was the greed of the station owners, but just wasn't 100% sure.

Guess we got into the wrong business huh ? Should of owned a gas station - oh well.

Well hopefully drivers get smart - don't buy gas there, give the business to those stations that may be high but are 20 cents different. I drove by BJ's today - they are about 25 cents lower than this one mobil i spoke about.

i'll wave to mobil as i drive by - he may be making a ton of money, but its not mine !

[Cooter]

Maybe we should stop the free market economy all together and start regulating prices on everything like communism. I think they want to much money for the new Vista and Microsoft Office as well. Should we arrest Bill Gates and make him lower the prices?

[sandy4514]

Cooter wrote:

Maybe we should stop the free market economy all together and start regulating prices on everything like communism. I think they want to much money for the new Vista and Microsoft Office as well. Should we arrest Bill Gates and make him lower the prices?

This kind of contradicts your posts about smoking, where you call for the government to outlaw the things or raise the price so high we'd have to martgage our homes to buy them. You should know, in your line of work, that these gas hikes will effect every other part of our economy for the worse--the cost of food being trucked, alone has already raised prices, you know every time you put deisel in that rig that this can only snowball into a raging avalanch that will collapse our economy. Oh, but we NEED the government to ban cigarettes because they're not healthy. Starving is not healthy, either. The government steps in to tell us what we can and can't do and where we can't do it, and you're still talking about a free market society. The rich get richer and the poor get poorer, and when it all hits the fan, oh, well, I got mine while the getting was good.

[Cooter]

Your absalutly right. I don't know what the answer is.

[sandy4514]

Thanks, Cooter, it really does mean a lot coming from you. I mean it. I don't know the answer, either, but apparently we're not doing what we did back in the 70's when there was a "gas shortage" that hiked the prices. Didn't the government declare a cap on the price? Didn't that generate funds for the Alaska pipeline which was supposed to ease our dependence on foreign oil? So you think Bush has a snowball's chance going to Saudi Arabia this week? Or are they just going to have a cook-out? Maybe the foreign car companies are behind all this so we'll all get Hybrids. I know, it's all AL GORE's fault!!!
Man, I'm going over the edge!

[i am bored]

I had a few of my son's friends with me yesterday and we drove by 2 mobils. Their comments were, "look at the prices, it will probably be $5-$6/gallon by the time we drive and we will make minimum wage and won't be able to afford anything else"

They talked like they were adults and it was sad.

Reality but so sad because it may be true.:(

[sandy4514]

They will have to work one hour to buy a gallon of gas. The horrible possiblities are endless because of this gas situation if an answer is not found. I don't know what our leaders are thinking, about when and where it will STOP.

[sandy4514]

i am bored wrote:

Thanks Sandy - i figured it was the greed of the station owners, but just wasn't 100% sure.
Guess we got into the wrong business huh ? Should of owned a gas station - oh well.
Well hopefully drivers get smart - don't buy gas there, give the business to those stations that may be high but are 20 cents different. I drove by BJ's today - they are about 25 cents lower than this one mobil i spoke about.
i'll wave to mobil as i drive by - he may be making a ton of money, but its not mine !

I wasn't really picking out the station owners being greedy. What I'm talking about are the companies that refine the oil and set their prices for the station owners to pay. Along with the price of a barrel of oil going up, we heard about "winter blend" and "summer blend" causing the rise, something we've never heard of before and is only an excuse, and when the oil companies who import it proudly announce their quarterly PROFITS (which is over and above their COST of importing and refining and distributing) in the multi-millions-straight out of our pockets while we scrimp and cut out long drives and choose between groceries and gas for work. I'm sure if enough Americans just stopped using gas, could choose NOT to buy it like Vista and Micro-software, the price would drop and they'd be giving it away. But unfortunately, WE can't, and the companies that truck our food and other necessary commodities can't. We'd have to get out the horse and buggy and hook the dog up to the sled, and grow our own food to feed THEM with! That would take care of "global warming"!

[Cooter]

I do know one thing; there is plenty of oil in Alaska that the Liberal Environmentalists won't let us drill for. Another big problem is we need more refineries that the Liberal tree huggers won't let us build. So thank your left wing tree huggers for your high gas prices and thank your right wing Republicans for being influenced by these pukes.

[rozShoem]

Sandy,
In either 2000 or 2001 (think it was 2001) some of our elected/appointed politicians passed legislation which made it possible for foreign commodities speculators to invest in oil/gas without restrictions.... So...the sky is the limit. These outfits that have large amounts of money can purchase oil and "hold" until they are ready to sell at a much higher price. Also large investment groups in this country are speculating in oil/gas commodities market). In the meantime...this means that these product become less abundant, less available...therefore the price increases at the pump! Hence, you pay over $4 at the pump for deisel fuel, gas, and will be paying a lot higher this winter for home heating fuel (oil or gas). If you think the cost of gas it is high now...wait until it hits $8 or $9/gallon....and it will. It is just a matter of time. Currently, in England people are paying $9 for gas. Actually they were paying this mid-spring....the cost may be higher currently. The cost per gallon of gasoline may go higher here than $8 or $9. Shortly the cost of a gallon of gas will be greater than the minimum wage. In another year or so America is going to look a lot different...trucking firms will shut down (this has already started to happen)...airlines will shut down (this has already started to happen), people will lose their homes (this has already started to happen), manufacturing base will relocate overseas (this has already happened), people will lose jobs (check out current rate of unemployment....and we do NOT know if these unemployment figures are accurate....Labor Dept is basing current statistics on ONLY those who have registered with them).... America the "super power" has been shooting itself in the foot in terms of some of the legislation it has passed in terms of commodities regulation. Also, people need to read (it's on the internet) Senator Kucinich's Resolution to Impeach President Bush. Evidentally, this had been read 6/9....but I did not hear about it until I watched C-SPAN 6/11 late evening. Nothing about it on national news channels or local news.... The reading of this resolution of impeachment was 5-hours in length and its content is more than interesting considering the oil/gas dilemma in which we find ourselves. Mr. Kucinich's articles of impeachment should be read by everyone before we start drilling anywhere.

[rozShoem]

About the 22 or 23 of May, I was in Malone, NY and paid $4.17 per gallon for gas. That same morning I drove through Canton, NY and saw a station on east side of Canton asking $4.09/gallon and another station on west side of Canton asking $4.07/gallon. Malone is not that far from Canton....WHY such a difference in the cost per gallon of gas?

sandy4514 wrote:

Because it's not only the Arabs who are lining their pockets. On our main road there are two stations about five miles apart. Last Saturday, the one furthest out was charging $3.89 per gallon, while the one closest to town was at $3.74!!! 15 cents difference, and I don't understand why, either. The cost goes up every time a barrel of oil comes into this country at a higher and higher price, we hear on the news every day about how the price of a barrel went up today to $120. SO, if it's all coming in from OPEC at this price, why is there such a BIG difference from station to station? Because they aren't the only ones lining their pockets and we suffer while they proudly announce their quarterly profits and the "government" refuses to do anything about it while they "say" they are watching out for price-gouging!! It's maddening, it's sickening, it's frustrating because we consumers can do nothing but pay, pay, pay.

[sandy4514]

A distance of 5 miles can make a BIG difference in the price of gas, even among stations supplied by the same oil company, as I've said in my posts about Sunoco stations. I'm being taught Economics 101 here, between the law of supply and demand and the commodities trading of the stock market. The more any product sells, the lower the price.

If you produced marshmallows, and at one store they sold like hot cakes but at another store there's no market for them, which bag is going to cost more? The store OWNERS still have to pay you X amount to GET the bags, but he can make no profit if there's no sales on them.

I think that's what I'm being told. So a lower volume gas station is going to charge more, at a price set by the main office to keep the station profitable. I could be wrong in my understanding of it. How about it?

[rozShoem]

Sandy,
Price gouging can be taking place at certain stations in addition to the major situation whereby pension plans and other large investment groups, speculators are investing in commodities (gas/oil).... This is regulated....but in 2000 or 2001 legislation was passed that reduced this regulation, especially in terms of foreign investors. In other words if I'm a billionaire and run out and purchased a large portion of the wheat market....and held it for a period of time wheat would become scare and at the same time increase in price. When I decided to sell, I would make a lot of money. Something happened in 2001 or 2002 whereby legislation was passed that reduced restrictions in terms of commodities regulation.

[sandy4514]

I understand, but I can't agree that when it comes to products that are VITAL, like wheat and corn, and gas, there should be no limit on how long you, as the buyer of the market, can hold on to it to drive up the price. It seems to me that it should be regulated somehow, that when you sell it finally and make a huge bundle, that's when the "windfall tax" should be enforced so that it doesn't do you any good to drive up the price. It's like blood money. It should not be legal to do this. And the snowball is already rolling. Just today a package of chicken thighs that would normally cost about $3.50 for the big pack is up to $7.00. Milk is going out of sight, eggs, and don't even talk about non-perishables that get trucked in. Meanwhile, more people are losing their jobs, their homes, airlines are cancelling flights and cutting back, and the higher the price goes, the worse it will get. And it's blood money.

[Lizzy32]

rozShoem wrote:

In another year or so America is going to look a lot different... trucking firms will shut down (this has already started to happen)...airlines will shut down (this has already started to happen), people will lose their homes (this has already started to happen), manufacturing base will relocate overseas (this has already happened), people will lose jobs (check out current rate of unemployment....and we do NOT know if these unemployment figures are accurate....

What does it take for people to wake up!! It is really getting scary!! And President..Schmezident...there is alot more going on here than just Bush can be responsible for and there are tons of people of various power causing havoc to America while lining their own pockets. But they will be the ones that can also afford to get out when the getting is good. I agree America is on a huge downward slide. American consumers if you could get them to band together should be a powerful force but we are a fickle self-centered bunch who would probably not stick to a ban of any sort to yield the power we would need. I'm afraid we're doomed!! We will become so dependant upon the powers to be ..we're in major debt, our retirements and healthcare are all but disappearing and the prices of everything are way out of wack with our earnings. God help us all!

[sandy4514]

There are still too many people who are blind to all of this and still believe the politicians. It takes some kind of catastrophic event to wake the general population up in any given circumstances. The problem is that we are going through that catastrophy RIGHT NOW until another depression hits like back in the 1930's and the newly homeless and jobless are sitting on the side of the road begging for help. Social Security System, the Unemployment System etc. were all set up to avoid another '30's- like Depression, and the end to THAT came when America joined WWII. What will it take this time?

There are still too many people in power not feeling the crunch yet.

[The Real Cooter]

Cooter wrote:

Your absalutly right. I don't know what the answer is.

I'm not surprised seeing as how you're a functional illiterate. You don't even know which your or you're to use in a sentence, you ninny!