Quote:
Originally Posted by 4X4
I'll just save myself aggravation by paying whatever the pump price is, but the bullcrap doesn't escape me. When Rona and Home Depot and Loews can have sales on 2x4s, but no gas station in history can ever have a sale on gas, it looks like collusion. I'm not asking for a "sale", I'm just saying that when one place raises the price, they all do. What do you call that? And what do you call that when half of them bought their supply three days ago for a lower price, but they still jump in on the price increase?
I know where this is going, though. The other half of it is that gas stations don't make money on gas, they make money on confectioneries. I guess I don't know what the solution is, except that I will buy an electric 4x4, once one is available, feasible, and reasonable.
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While I totally agree with your level of frustration, I think what makes it not quite collusion is just how public the prices are. When you can literally look out your gas station window and see the price the competition is charging and you know that the public has basically zero recourse, then it does make sense from a business standpoint to raise prices. No collusion needed.
We need gas, no getting around that. We tend to go to the place most convenient, the stations know that. So when the station across the street raises prices, legitimate or not, I kind of understand why a station might match. No reason to miss out on that extra profit. Having a price 5 cents lower probably wouldn't increase their business that much given that you can't really stock up on gasoline when prices are low and avoid buying when prices are high.
With a market with basically an endless demand, no ability to stockpile and public pricing, it sucks ass, but it makes sense why there is only ever upward pricing, never downward.