Just filled up both my cars - wholesale gas prices going thru roof down south

We are well over $4.00 here...$4.30 when I drove home yesterday. I thought I smelled something in the air on Tuesday so I filled at $3.45. At the time I was irritated that the gas pump was broken and crammed at least an extra 2 gallons in, but now it seems like a bit of good luck. Only a bit, though.

 

Gas prices are only a tad higher here and I am getting hit by IKE right now. If people in Texas were at $ 4 or 5 bucks then they were gouging. But I would expect prices to be near $4 at least next week!

 

Atlanta area gas stations began to run out, and close down last night.
Ive seen prices as high as $5.00, but the average is $4.69.
Long lines last night too, at the stations still open.

 

Filled up both cars here in Tulsa yesterday at $3.45 per gal. That has been the going price for regular here for the last two or three weeks. Haven't been out to look at the prices yet this morning. Don't know if they will go up or not, but we are set for two or three weeks anyway.

edit:
The price at the station I filled up at yesterday was up by fifteen cents per gallon this morning. Not bad considering.

 

prices went from $3.59 to $4.09 from thursday afternoon to yesterday afternoon. unfortunately, i needed gas and paid $3.99. after 5pm, some gas station lots were so full there were cars parked on roadways while waiting for a turn at the gas pump.

i'm heading out here shortly, i'm curious to see what it's up to now.

 

Here in the Lake Norman area, just north of Charlotte, prices have gone from around $3.59 on Thursday to as high as $4.59 or $4.69 here last night and today.

I filled up earlier in the week at $3.55 but there is definitly gouging going on. Ridiculous.

 

Here we go again. Common folks with no clue of ECO 101 who are not business persons or owners complaining about "price gouging". Can you tell me what "gouging" is? Is it a 10% profit? A 20% profit? A 30% profit??? Are lawyers price gougers at $275/hr? Or should they all charge $50/hr? Are thoracic surgeons with 25 years of experience and with over a dozen years of high level education price gougers when they charge $8,000 or more for a life saving heart operation?? Maybe we should have a law dictating exactly how much profit anyone is allowed to earn on any given product or service they sell to the public.

Well, here in the great state of FL, we actually have laws that dictate (in a very vague sense I might add which gives the FL State AG great latitude to prosecute) that business are not allowed to raise prices during an emergency. So the end result is mass hoarding which deprives many of needed services and supplies such as generators and fuel during emergencies. We used to have roadside vendors come from up north and sell generators from rental trucks. Sure the price was high but no one was forcing you to buy a generator. They, not you, assumed all the risk of selling their generators. The great government of FL put a stop to that. Now when Home Depot and Lowes run out of stock on generators (and they always do when a hurricane strikes FL) you are simply SOL.

I have always been amazed how government can dictate to a private business how much they must charge for a product they have bought and stock for resale with their own cash. Zimbabwe has instituted such policies which has resulted in untold human suffering and a collapse of private enterprises.

The solution is simple. If you are dissatisfied with the prices vendors are charging for supplies, then I suggest you start your own business (an auto dealership, a home supply store, a gas station, or even your own oil company) or become a thoracic surgeon (it's real easy...) and charge at cost so everyone will praise you as a good person who does not gouge.

Oh, I almost forgot, don't forget to save a little for your building rent, building maintenance, workers comp, security, insurance (fire, theft, liability, weather, etc), electricity, water, sewer, taxes (there are LOTS of taxes and forms), inventory costs, employee payroll, raw material increases, long hours, daycare for your children, internal employee strife, embezzlement by employees, few or no vacations, competition, and a few hundred other items to place in the monetary and emotional debit column. Imagine, a greedy business owner still wants a profit...

Perhaps we could turn over all the stores and businesses over to the government to ensure everyone pays a "fair" price... I'm sure they could do a much better job at managing a business than those greedy evil business owners and corporations who have the nerve to make a profit.

You're a big boy/girl now. If you don't like the price, then go somewhere else or don't purchase the item. Grow up and don't complain as a third grader would about the high prices of things you want...

Rick
#4 2006

 

Prices here were around $3.49 on Tuesday, yesterday they went up around $4.09, some stations were as high as $4.79. The governor has already started an investigation in which stations were price gouging.

 

I guess they have been price gouging here in the Seattle area for months..price here just went down to $3.79 -3.89 a gallon.

 

Viking31.

I agree completely.... just b/c the price goes up, doesn't mean the clear profit to the retailer does, and in some cases it actually goes down b/c they absorb some of the cost just to continue to make a small profit. Supply and demand. It is that simple. If we didn't buy the gas, the price would go down- I guarantee it! The more we buy, the higher it will go-I guarantee it!!

 

And another reason higher prices are justified during a time when shortages may exist such as refinery shutdowns is the gas stations will run out of fuel to sell. So they will have to close when fuel is not in supply. BUT rent of the building, insurance, and numerous other costs are NOT prorated or adjusted for a shutdown. Hence the necessity for higher prices during shortages.

Even Fox news was recently lamenting at the price "gouging" for hotel rooms and such. I say you should be so lucky to get a room at any price during the middle of a hurricane. I imagine the owner of the hotel will have to pay extra for overtime and such for the employees to show up during a hurricane and not to mention the repairs necessary from hurricane damage. But we will now have an AG prosecuting a business owner who simply went out of his way to provide services for the public during a state of emergency.

With such governmental interference and risk of CRIMINAL prosecution, I don't even know why these businesses even bother to remain open during emergencies.

Rick
#4 2006
Hello, I'm from the government and I'm here to help you...

 

Rick,

Just for the record I actually have an Economics degree.

Also the Sheriff of York County SC and various Charlotte government agencies made a plea for customers to "Retain their Receipts" through the local media in order to investigate any possibly price fixing. And as something else that makes you go "Hummm" the Shell station at Exit 36 near LKN was selling gas for $3.59 THIS morning, while the Shell at Exit 33 (same county, same taxes) had gas for sale at $4.59.

Now it is possible since they were out of gas last night they received a shipment from some previous contract below the $3/gallon wholesale price from last week while others are paying the newly inflated $5/gallon so charge higher prices BUT!!!!!!

If some station got gas under contract for under $3/gallon from a previous contract while the one across the street had to pay $5/gallon there could be a problem. The $5/gallon station charges $5.25 for gas and the $3/gallon station charges $4.25 they look like HEROES ... BUT guess what they are GOUGING.

This is what will be investigated. So, before you go off on some stupid diatribe check your facts and don't think you are better than everyone else. People like you are what make normal people think Prius owners are "Smug, Arrogant, SOB's that think they are better and know more than everyone else." Thanks for proving their point.

Ohhh and how amazing it is that gas is now down to a more "normal" (for the situation) $4.09 or $4.19/gallon.

Chris

 

Price has gone up from $3.25 to $3.59 at the corner station where I usually get my gas. In only two days. I reckon prices will remain high for a while yet.

 

In Smyrna, Ga. this afternoon I could not find regular gas. The gas stations were out!

I have a little less than half a tank. The good news is that will last me a while.

It will be interesting to see what happens over the next couple of days.

 

You have an economics degree? I truly don't believe it, but if so, from where? An Eastern Bloc country?

You have not defined "gouging" and you apparently are OK with governments defining pricing guidelines for private enterprises and subsequently prosecuting those who dare set prices of THEIR merchandise which THEY own and sell at levels which you subjectively find too "high".

Should we start investigating auto dealers who add surcharges on hard to find Prius's? Why does a Prius cost more in LA than Topeka? (you'll find no shortage of crybabies on this board regarding that point). That's "gouging" too, right? Everyone needs a car, right?? Why is gas and hotel rooms so different?? Housing prices have gone up and down at an astounding rate over a small relative amount of time. Why aren't the developers and homeowners being investigated for house pricing "gouging" on a grand basis throughout the nation?? Are merchants only allowed to raise their prices if their wholesalers raise prices? What about the wholesalers? Should we prosecute them too? I am a business owner and occasionally raise my prices because I simply feel the market will bear it and I want more money. No particular reason, I just want more money. Am I guilty of "gouging"? Should I be put in jail??? Hugo thinks so.

Anti gouging laws do nothing to preserve the sacrosanct laws of supply and demand (they turn that very principle on its head producing negative results throughout society) and only serve to discourage the establishment of a true free enterprise system. Read your history. It's been tried time and time again all throughout the world; ALWAYS with dismal results.

Let the free market system work its magic. Despite what liberal college economic professors promulgate or what a "caring government" that caters to the primarily to the peasant mentality and leads you to believe, the end consumer, when put into an environment with thriving businesses that are unfettered by childlike feel good, short sighted, vote getting governmental laws, regulations, and "windfall taxes", is a power that nothing and no one can surpass.

While our anti gouging laws throughout the states are not as severe, read the link below (and even by the ever liberal NY Times I might add) and think again about the government setting prices, policies, and such:

CARACAS, Venezuela, Feb. 16 — Faced with an accelerating inflation rate and shortages of basic foods like beef, chicken and milk, President Hugo Chávez has threatened to jail grocery store owners and nationalize their businesses if they violate the country’s expanding price controls. (read more...)


Rick
#4 2006

 

Of course they are out of fuel. Faced with a potential crisis, consumers who could naturally hoarded supplies at a "bargain" price. Retailers were prevented by GA law from raising prices to prevent such a scenario. Thanks to your anti gouging laws, those that are unable to hoard fuel (the poor and those who simply do not have the means to store containers of gasoline) are left high and dry. Or in FL it would be low and wet...

Rick
#4 2006
Psss't, hey buddy, want to buy some gas???

 

Paid $3.49 for gas yesterday morning. By yesterday evening it was $3.69 at the same station. At 8 o'clock this morning it was $3.97.

At the only station selling it for $3.49 yesterday evening they had to call the cops -- not for traffic control, but for all the fights that broke out at the pumps because people were cutting each other off. You would have thought that they were gonna quit making it tomorrow. They are selling it for $3.69 today with a brisk business.

Highest price I saw today was $4.09.

 

Also in Virginia: 3.98-3.99 at the "major" stations, I paid 3.69 at a discount grocery that sells gas. I wondered if I just hit them at a better time, i.e., on their previous cheaper wholesale delivery.

 

Rick,

Please direct any further posts to Roy Cooper the AG of North Carolina. I am sure he will be happy to hear from someone as intelligent as you. Any help you can provide would be GREATLY appreciated. Here is a link

http://www.ncdoj.com/

Thanks, I am sure he will really appreciate the help. If not please just keep posting here its amusing at this point.

Chris

Sorry, this should be the link to the press release:

http://www.ncdoj.com/DocumentStream...sReleases/&file=Price Gouging--What's New.pdf Gouging--What's New.pdf