Why haven't gas prices gone down?

[SC Maintenance]

Maryland

strange. You pull from the same Colonial Pipe we do. But its "big oil" not your poor suffering local retailer (Sheetz et al) / sarc.

If you compare to my post #92 wholesale price has gone up $0.02 since Tuesday.

 

[Hermann]

Gas blew up here 30 to 40 cents overnight.
@fantastic isn't doing his job.

Filled up a couple days ago. Paid $2.78 at Murphy's. Most other places are 15¢ higher.

 

[4WD]

ExxonMobil, Shell, BP and others also operate their own gas stations. If they're so honorable, why aren't we seeing gas at their stations being sold with "reasonable" markups on top of wholesale prices? In the retail space, competition seems plentiful. Are you suggesting there is a cartel agreement among the dozens of companies who sell fuel to consumers? This is a genuine question, perhaps there is one, IDK - I often see all gas stations in my area mysteriously move prices up and down in perfect unison - something that's unlikely to happen spontaneously in a free market environment.

That said, with crude oil being this cheap, it seems to me that even the wholesale price is still way too high - falling back to my thesis about refinineries dictating high prices due to capacity constraints.

Want to tell us the percentage they own? (Hint, it’s but a few) …

 

[Zee09]

Filled up a couple days ago. Paid $2.78 at Murphy's. Most other places are 15¢ higher.

I got it for $2.82 as a few stations didn't rise yet yesterday. It's $3.19 about everywhere now

 

[Johnny248]

Looks like you guys could use $1.50-2.00/gal additional tax to fix you right up.

I believe our is $0.31/gal plus 6% sales tax in Michigan.

 

[grampi]

Just paid this a little while ago
View attachment 301050

In a week or two it'll be up to $3.50...

 

[MrStamper]

Getting hit hard here on the west coast. 4.39 here in Portland Oregon. Heard Washington state is worse. California also ridiculous. Why? Don’t know. Rest of the country gas is down but here. 18c fed tax and 40c state tax.

 

[odie]

Should be dropping due to winter blend being less expensive to produce . The prices here remain the same for now .

 

[Chris142]

Our gas is expensive because this state adds tax on top of taxes

 

[demarpaint]

Greed and price fixing, imo.

 

[SC Maintenance]

Greed and price fixing, imo.

The retailers like to claim "little guy", but some of the countries largest private companies are gas station chains - Pilot, QT, Wawa, etc - are all on the list of largest privately held companies in the USA. There worth billions. Do you think they would be building ever more gas stations making thin margins? Not what billionaires do.

 

[JavierH19]

Lowest i've seen in my area in the past couple months was 2.27 and now it's 2.39. Should be lower but it's not the worst. What's the price in your area.

 

[JavierH19]

The retailers like to claim "little guy", but some of the countries largest private companies are gas station chains - Pilot, QT, Wawa, etc - are all on the list of largest privately held companies in the USA. There worth billions. Do you think they would be building ever more gas stations making thin margins? Not what billionaires do.

Exactly. They pretend like they have it hard but it's plain to see they don't. Same with casinos, they wouldn't be these ultra extravagant crapshoots if people were winning, they're that nice because people lose. The nicer the casino the faster the fool will get flushed of every last penny he has.

 

[thastinger]

Around here, we have about a dollar a gallon difference between 87 and 93, which has really crept up in recent years, used to be 20 cent steps up between 87-89-93 maybe 6(ish) years ago.

 

[Zee09]

They are dropping once again here in Maryland...down about 10 cents overnight

 

[Arc]

In small towns with three or four gas stations fuel is always the same price and they all change at the exact same time even though they all have different owners. Imagine if all your local contractors or retail stores coordinated like that.

 

[Hermann]

Mysteriously the price dropped here about 15¢ over the weekend. Bought 93 octane premium for the motorcycle and it was down under $3.50

 

[Chris142]

Lowest i've seen in my area in the past couple months was 2.27 and now it's 2.39. Should be lower but it's not the worst. What's the price in your area.

Its been $3.89-$3.99 for a few weeks for regular here at the cheap stations. The name brands are $4.79 and up.

 

[Zee09]

I'm happy at $2.95 this morning for Sunoco...many stations are still at $3.19 for 87 octane

 

[Hermann]

I'm happy at $2.95 this morning for Sunoco...many stations are still at $3.19 for 87 octane

is Sunoco Top Tier?