Comment on Wednesday’s prediction:Â There was no price hike on Thursday or Friday, so the prediction was WRONG.
Sunday, April 20, 2008: 8:30 AM: Since my WRONG prediction on Wednesday, wholesale prices have moved up a bit more, while retail prices have moved down a bit. So, we’ll try again: price hike to at least $3.65 on Monday or Tuesday, as I agree with the rest of the Gas Game crowd.
We saw some hikes later in the week in the Detroit area. We still saw some stations at $3.39 on Thursday, but most of those same stations hiked to over $3.50 on Friday ($3.54 to $3.59).
Well, it doesn’t look like Speedway will restore today. I thought they would go for sure on Thursday, Firday, then again today. Shows what I know.
I like to think of Speedway as a parent paying out an allowance to the rest of the retailers. If we all follow their rules, then they let us make money by restoring whenever margins get low. If someone plays games and pisses them off, then they keep our margins down to punish us and remind us that they are in charge.
Rack prices are 7 cents higher than they were when we went to $3.659 last year. But, they must’ve whet to a higher than normal margin, because $3.659 seems about right today.
Our cost is around $3.459 (not counting the 9 cent per gallon credit card fees) today and a lot of the State is below that. Speedway has one station that is at $3.229, which is losing 22 cents per gallon.
I really can’t imagine that they won’t go to $3.659 or $3.699 tomorrow (or $3.599 if prices go down some tonight).