Tuesday, July 26, 2005

Last Thursday afternoon, I headed north, and came back on Saturday. In Cadillac, prices everywhere were $2.39, so it looked like the price hike happened. But in Reed City, you could get gas on Saturday for $2.10, and in Grand Rapids, it was as low as $1.97 on Monday morning. At $1.97, retailers were losing at least 20 cents per gallon, so I’m not sure why they would let it go that low. I guess it is competition, since sometimes cash flow is more important than profits. (Ask General Motors about that.) The $2.36 did not restore their margins to 20 cents per gallon, so they is room for another price hike at the end of the week to $2.45. That’s not a prediction. Just something to wonder about. On Friday afternoon, Speedway reset to $2.36. In some parts of town (notably Standale), competitors did not match prices, and Speedway had to give back the price hike in those places.