Curious about gas prices around the country

I was just wondering what y'all are paying for gas around the country. Here in Kentucky yesterday....it was 194.9 a gallon for regular. I heard it hit 201.9 in Indiana.

Let's hear from you what you are paying and did anyone do the gas boycott yesterday? I couldn't, I still have to do business. :)

It's anywhere from 1.87 to 2.01 here. I buy the gas card at Walmart and get 3 cents off....

In Victoria BC Canada, in CDN$ gas is 98.5 cents/litre which works out to about $3.96 gallon CDN, so maybe about $3 USD.

We're not happy campers about it, and yes I did do the boycott yesterday but it seems more effective to boycott specific companies.

(edited for spelling :()

This message was edited May 20, 2004 1:12 PM

It's running from $2.13 to $2.28 here. I did fill up for $2.07 in the next county yesterday. Living in the same county as Chicago, taxes tend to be a bit higher on everything.
Deb

HI, just rose to 2.05.9 to 2.09.9 at self-serve here the last couple of days..

Around Peoria, we are paying $2.09 - $2.19 for the regular/cheaper gas.
When I was out in Calif. last month, they were paying $2.19 - $2.29.

Something needs to be done. Getting tired of the 'good old American ripoff'!!

Filled up today at $1.97.

I got gas on Sunday for $1.96 but today it is back up to $2.13. Ouch!!!

$1.91 to 2.25 here. I feel old. I can remember buying my first tank of gas. Filling the tank on my Moms Pontiac cost me $5.82 for 24 gallons. Was I think 23.9 cents. And I'm sure it got a whopping 6 miles to the gallon!

Today it's $1.93, I think it was $1.98 earlier this week.

The only nice thing about your car being broke down is that you don't get to drive it past gas stations and "gulp in horror", lol! But it goes in the shop tomorrow morning - hopefully for the last time. (they had better do it right this time, I guess is what I'm saying).

Yesterday Ralph and I were out and about. As we passed a Shell station I noticed that it said $189.9 . Told Ralph and we said on the way back we would fill up. We were gone no more than 30 minutes, came back and the sign said $194.9. Today I noticed it is $199.9. Don't these people get tired changing the prices all day long?

And I would think that it would change when the underground tanks are filled up due to their higher cost of a load. I didn't know that the price inflates just sitting in the tank!!!

What a scam these companies are pulling!!!

$1.90 to $1.98 down here in south jersey!!!

With all the tourest due here for the holiday weekend my guess is we will hit the $2.00 mark by the end of the week!!! YIKES!!!!!

sue

We give $1.85 to $1.95 as of yesterday here. And it seems to jump a couple cents each day.

We have been at $2.09.9 all week. I'm debating whether to fill or wait and see what happens. I'll probably fill tomorrow, because I don't expect any drop until after the holiday weekend. More likely it will just go higher.

Joan, it seems to drop at the beginning of the week and closer to the weekend, zing...........there they go...!!!

Southern Calif. checking in here and we are not Happy Campers. I filled up this morning, after going past 4 gas stations and finally found the cheapest @ $2.27 pg. My DH's car has to use the good stuff and his price is $2.59 pg. It sure is getting hard to drive any where right now, and especially in heavy traffic with the A/C going too.

Donna

we filled up for 1.96.9 today but that is definitely the lowest...

San diego has the highest prices in the country. $2.37.9 today, up 10 cents from Monday. Tomorrow, who knows.

Here in the Tourist area of the western NC mountains, we are at $2.01, up from $1.69 just TWO weeks ago, and $1.79 last week, and that's the cheap(er) stuff from across the line into GA where their taxes are a bit lower.

The profit mongrels in the oil business sure have us by the short hairs, don't they?

Just watching morning news. I was in Twin Cities Wed, prices were mostly $1.969. They said they went to$2.219 overnight.
Of course the weekend is here & you must jack the price so you get more of the tourist dollar!
Look-out next week, it's Memorial Day weekend!
Bernie

Averaging about $2.02 around here, closer you get to DC and Baltimore, the higher it goes.

Oh Bernie, I know, next weekend will be rough. Everyone better fill up on Wednesday and stay away till the following Wednesday. :)

Ralph told me he watched the news this a.m. and they are predicting oil prices will be $80 a barrel by summer. If some are not sure what that means, well look at the prices of your gas today......today oil is about $45 a barrel. That is scary and maybe it would be cheaper to go buy a horse and wagon!

We've had no one from Florida check in yet. I had heard last year when the gas prices starting spiking that Florida won the award for the highest gas. That surprised me as I thought it would be California. So if you're in FL, let us hear from you.

:) Kathy

Before we begin slamming the greedy oil companies, may I gently present another side to consider?

When we grouse about the gas prices, we often fail to factor in taxes. Here in Tennessee, I *think* roughly $.45 or more for each gallon is tax of one type or another. When gas prices were around a dollar, that meant that the gas station (which must pay for employees, facilities, insurance, utilities, etc.), the trucking/hauler (again, paying for trucks, faciliites, drivers, insurance, etc.), the refinery (bearing massive infrastructure and regulatory costs, liability insurance, salaries, etc.) and the exploration/production entities were all divvying up two bits for every gallon sold. Granted, there's a lot of volume, but no matter how you slice it, that's still not much money when you've got the overhead these folks do.

Razor-thin profit margins (pennies on the dollar, similar to what a fast-food chain hopes to realize) meant there was very little money to invest in upgrades to facilities, new refineries, new exploration, etc.

If we wonder why the rest of the world rolls its eyes at our histrionics, keep in mind that our prices still aren't as expensive as what other countries have been seeing for years. (It's kind of like when you tell a kid "welcome to the grownup world")

As consumers, we have demanded bigger and heavier vehicles for years, regardless of their fuel inefficiency: how many SUVs and pickups with huge, powerful engines do you see on the road each day? If you pull up next to one, you can almost hear the gurgling sound of gas being guzzled by these beasts.

Truth be told, we've been our own worst enemy for the past 10-15 years. We loved cheap gas, we relied on a never-ending supply of it to fill 25-gallon tanks on the personal "Sherman tanks" we call vehicles, and we unquestioningly allowed the government to increase the taxes on gasoline and oil because we didn't see an immediate effect at the pump.

Why are gas prices so volatile, seeming to change hourly? Because commodity traders are buying and selling the stuff, and what's in the ground under the facility must be replaced with more expensive fuel in a day or two. Failing to pass on those increases would spell financial ruin for the retailer - their profit margins simply can't absorb the increases day after day.

For the record, no SUVs here. We have a '91 half-ton pickup we use to haul stuff that won't fit in a car, and it's used sparingly. We have two smaller cars that are very fuel efficient, and even my "mom-mobile" sedan gets 20-25 mpg. I calculate every trip to town and try to squeeze in as many errands as I can in the most efficient route possible.

If everyone began combining their errands into a single trip (even if it's inconvenient to postpone a run to the store), buying more fuel-efficient vehicles when we need to replace ours, and keeping our current vehicles in optimal running condition, our demand for gas would decline, and gas prices would come eventually come down.

That's what happened after the oil embargo and huge price spike of the mid-70s, when people started finding ways to economize on the amount of gas they consumed and began buying more fuel-efficient vehicles.

Just my humble $0.02 worth ;o)

Very good Terry. I know Ive been complaining my fair share, I try to stay home or just walk when I can being a stay at home domestic referee. I also have been trying to keep DH from buying a large SUV for those reasons, plus I dont see that we "need" one anyway. He has a toy S10 p/u with a 355 in it but it only gets run a few times a week and its not a traveling vehicle. Do I want to drive it everyday, well, heck yeah, but Im trying.
I remember the gas embargo, I wasnt driving yet but boy do I remember the panic that set in.
Im no goody two shoes as I have done my fair share of wasting gas too but it is a good point also.

True Terry, but they wouldn't be in it if they weren't making money. And while the prices keep going up for gas, it costs me more to deliver and supply what I do. My costs have all gone up, but for what I do (farmers' marketing) I can't raise my prices much if any because people would accuse me of taking advantage. So my profit margin has gotten a lot less. In order for me to hope that this too shall pass, I have to continue the march with what I have and hope that the people supporting me now will continue.

Our oil refineries are antiquated. We do need new ones, we cannot keep up with supply & demand with the equipment we have now. The money is there to build new refineries, our country (the people we voted in) choose to spend money in different areas. And as far as taxes on the gas, all of our states are in bad financial straights! If we didn't pay the taxes on the gas, we'd be paying it somewhere else.

I have felt for sometime that we need to rethink who we buy our oil from, they have us over a barrel (no pun intended). Lets work on alternative energy sources and conserve folks! Perhaps if we refuse to buy oil from people that don't like us, but like our money...we could send a message, that "Where there's a will, there's a way!" :)

:) Happy Day, Kathy

Some things to compare:
Soda pop, 10.67 cans per gallon 75¢ to $1 a can.
Milk $2.80 or more to gallon. Good for you at least!
Beer at our legion club, again 10.67 bottles to gallon. $2.25 each, $24.01 per gallon.
Bottled water, $1.00 a bottle, 8 - 16 oz bottles to a gallon,
boy I'm glad I don't buy water! Have a good well.
Bernie

Houston TX area I saw any where from 1.86 to 1.89 for regular
Yesterday. This is getting ridiculus. I just stay home. I heard years ago that Our federal government paid our refineries to not use our gas rescources? I have not seen any slack with production here and we probably have the most oil companies around the US in any one place. Look what they resently did to eggs and milk and now they are coming back down. That did not last long. I think if we cut back on what we as individuals use they would be forced to bring prices down.

Ha, ha Bernie....something to think about for sure. BTW, our milk here in KY has gone to almost $4.00 a gallon, isn't that terrible?

One more fleeting thought, store owners make approx 4 cents per gallon of gas sold, whether its 1.00 a gallon or 2.50 a gallon. The majority of stores sell a lot of gas on a daily basis. Lets take an example of 100,000 gallons a day, that's possible at many of these convenient stores. That's $4,000 a day for just taking your money. They don't have to calibrate the pumps, pump the gas, put the gas in the underground tanks (and most don't even wash your windshield anymore).... I'm not even sure they pay for the pumps to be installed (I think the company that owns that gas does that).

Hmmmmm, I could be in the wrong business. Kathy

There's a gas station across the street from my DH's office. He says he sees the guys out there all the time changing the price signs - he even asked one once if he felt like his arms were about to fall off. The clerk told him that the phone keeps ringing from the corporate office with new prices (usually higher) and he has to go out and change it everytime, immediately - whether there are customers in the store or not. Guess they are more worried about their gas prices than they are of someone shopliftting candy bars & doritos.

Before this thread goes too far astray into current events (and winds up deep-sixed ;o) let's stick with the original question. I'm equally guilty of going off on the same tangent as everyone else, so let me try to bring it back around to answering the original question:

Gasoline last night was $1.89 at Sam's & WalMart when I filled up - they're usually the cheapest in town (That's for the 87 octane; premium/91 octane is $2-something. I don't use it, so I don't pay that much attention.)

Cheapest here yesterday was 2.29 at Costco. it goes up .10 to .99 from there.

Speaking of gas, let me tell you something else that happened in Louisville over the past few weeks. Evidentally, there has been a high number of calls to AAA and others about running out of gas. A normal week is around 76 calls they said. Last week they had over 200 and then another 200 after the news got out.

It seems that gas gauges were malfunctioning. Division of Regs and Inspections went around town and took several samples of gasoline. (It was only happening in Louisville.)

Yesterday they determined that Marathon gasoline had high levels of sulfur and it was deteriorating the gas gauges, which to replace are anywhere from $300 to $900. Marathon is making it right by paying for any repairs and towing that any customer may have incurred.

So, if you are in Louisville, be careful buying your gas for a bit, I don't think they were going to be flushing the tanks. And on some of these roads in the city to have your gauge tell you your tank is full and then your car quit in the middle of a 6 lane highway can be very dangerous. :)

Terry, thank you. That is all I wanted was to know what the gas prices were around our world. :) Happy Day. Kathy

I got it at 1.95.9 before it went up to 2.13.9. I hate feeling like I got a bargain at nearly $2/gal.!

Here is $1.87.9 a gallon boy too high gas!

$1.83 at Sam's Club is cheapest around here, though that is over 10 miles from home. Around the corner from my house it was $1.93 two days ago when I noticed it.

Red, count your blessings, it sounds like you have the cheapest around :)

Hate to break the "cheap" record.... But:

$1.85 avg here for 87octane

$2.28 to $2.32 here in our area

Filled up with 87 octane for 185.9 today.

Edited to say that was here in North Alabama.
Doris

This message was edited May 21, 2004 9:32 PM