went up 30 cents from yesterday... 3.35

 

I agree with your Wife! Maybe boycotting Chevron for a Month, nationwide, "Might" (??) make some kind of impact!

 

Boycotting one oil company for any period of time will produce as much impact as does boycotting buying gas on any single day. These types of measures do not reduce the amount of oil consumed and purchased it only shifts the purchased amount from one company to another. Worst case scenario this sort of boycott might result in an escalation in prices becuase one major supplier would be taken out of the equation leaving the other suppliers to make up the short fall.

The simplest thing that can be done by virtually everyone is to converse fuel. Riding a bike or walking to the corner store as opposed to driving, shutting off your vehicle when you go into a store, not using the drive thru windown at fast food places, not idling a vehicle when in traffic or at a long traffic light.

These are all things that can be done by everyone that can start a trend which leads to lower demand and in turn should lead to lower pump prices.

 

I didn't buy gas yesterday only because I didn't need to. It really doesn't make a difference to me, as long as I can still afford to get somewhere. Besides, even if it does go down, chances are it won't be as low as it was this winter. This is summer, and people take trips/vacations etc... So yea.. they're going to jack up the prices.

 

Wierd???? Would you rather the constuction crews worked in 19deg weather so and took twice as long to do the needed maintenance therebye driving the price up even further? Its warm out Road construction happens now, refinery maintenance happens now... baseball season happens now.... wait that didnt fit
The only people these gas outs affect is the Gas station owners as their profits dont derive from the gas you buy but the smokes... soda.... candy...ect you buy along with the gas. Take that away for a day and you hurt the little guys not the big guys. BTW standard profit for gas in Illinois is $0.03-$0.05 Not much for the owner.

 

See someone else agreed with me

 

I didn't buy gas, but I really think the way to get the gas stations attention is to boycott everything else that is sold in their stores, no lottery tickets, no cigaretes, sodas, snacks. You have to drive, but you cn acut into their rpofits quite measurably by making those purchases elsewhere.

 

Why would you want to shoot the messenger? It's not the stations that control the price.

 

I believe that gas stations control prices to a fairly significant degree. The big picture is that the crude oil price has a significant effect on the price of gasoline but there is a significant lag period between the price of crude and the associated price of gasoline. Gas stations, can operate, as a cartel (hypothetically.) In the end they control the sales price of the commodity to the consumer, although there are some regulatory agencies which oversee these sorts of things. It is fairly evident that prices are fixed and/or adjusted but stations becuase you will always find identical prices at different stations within a geographic region. When one station raises or lowers prices all others follow. It's sort of an unwritten law.

I heard about a study that was recently released up here in Alberta which analysed pumps prices and crude oil prices. It was determined in this study that pump prices are roughly 10 to 15 cents higher per litre of gas than is expected when all events are factored in post-hurricane Katrina. The reason behind the escalation is because of the gas stations not reducing prices.

 

There has to be a lot more profit in gas than that. Not all gas stations carry all that other stuff. Some places around here just sell gas and nothing else. There are also many around here that just sell gas and cigs. They are true gas stations, not gas station/mini-marts like you described. If there is no profit to be made in gas then how and why do they stay open? I'm no expert on gas stations and their profit but if what you are saying is true then we wouldn't have straight up gas stations in my area. They would all have mini-marts attached. I think gas station owners see mini-marts as a way to increase their profit, not as a way to sustain their business.