Comment on the September 21 prediction: Yep, prices rose as predicted, so I was CORRECT. Then prices started to plummet.
Monday, October 6, 2014, 8:45PM: Gas is below $3 a gallon at several stations in the area, including $2.91 in Lowell. It looks to me like the retailers are selling below cost right now — kind of a clearance sale of expensive gas they bought a few weeks ago. But wholesale prices have ticked up today, and I think Speedway and friends (now including Hess on the East Coast!) will decide it is time to re-set prices. There is a case to be made, based on past behavior, of a new price of $3.49, but I think they’ll set it a bit lower than that. –Ed A.
Filled up for 2.85 this morning. Thanks.
Yeah, I can’t see them going that high. Probably a spike to 3.39, then another one late this week or early next. It was nice while it lasted!
$2.76 in SE Indy just might be the cheapest price in the nation. I checked some dark green areas on the national Gasbuddy map and couldn’t find anything lower.
Zone pricing at its finest. The north Indy area is about 50c more than that…
Enjoy it while it lasts. If we jump to 3.50 or so it will be a 75c jump for them along with the requisite TV news stories and expert interviews…
Agreed, Turbo. In my home zip code, $3.03, thanks to a 10 cent customer loyalty is the best that I can get.
Got it for $2.81 @ Meijer (with Meijer credit card % cents off per gallon) in Greenville last night so I jumped on it since I had to be there anyway.
5 cents off per gallon that should be
No jump yet in sw Ohio
Holding at $3.05-$3.29 in South Bend area.
Sounds like a good time for a one tank trip thru greenwood to southern Indiana. Murphy Oil usually holds back. on the spike till the end of the day and the weather looks good tomorrow . That’s how I like to play the game. Lol
WTI crude under $89/bbl.
NY RBOB down another $0.051 heading toward the bell. I hope the Second City catches a lot of this.
Chicago CBOB is down 4.49cts to $2.3683.
Sorry, that’s NYMEX RBOB, CBOB is down 1.99 cents to 2.4883.
Lovely. Chicago price more expensive than NYC never mind the refineries and pipelines in the area.
Has this spread always been like that or it’s yet another recent development?
Pity we don’t hear the experts discuss zone pricing incidentally…
Because the vast majority of us aren’t always finding topic after topic to constantly grouse about.
You need to learn to enjoy good things while you have them. It’s okay to be happy every now and then.
Zone pricing makes business sense guys. I can’t claim I’ve ever worked for an oil company or at a retail station, but if a guy 20 miles away is selling 40 cents per gallon lower, more power to him. As a gas station or any business, my plan is not to lose money day in and out. Losing money is not a successful strategy. So why would I match someone so far away when they aren’t competing with my volume/customers/immediate area? Some stations in a small area may get locked in a price war between them that then spreads to other nearby communities, but to voluntarily opt-in as a station quite a ways away? Last time I checked gas stations aren’t non-profits. Nor are banks, utilities, etc.
Great explanation patrick!
Zone pricing is more ‘palatable’ to the average consumer, and I’m sure it is practiced in non Speedway states. I really have no issue with it since I do 90% of my gasoline purchases at Costco which seems to resist the temptation a lot better than other retailers…
The only objection I have to zone pricing is when ‘ability to pay’ figures into the equation and wealthier customers get hosed (aka the ‘Carmel Premium’ which results in nearly every service call in my city to be 20% higher than surrounding areas) or when lower income people get hosed (big box retailers routinely price baby items higher in urban settings… think what you like about the practice but to single out certain items for higher prices is not what I would consider a good idea.
Zone pricing has been debated by the legal system and remains largely legal. But I don’t buy the explanation of ‘local price wars’ very much. Price wars rarely happen on the north side of Indianapolis, for example, while they seem to be a constant on the south side. Number of gas stations has little to do with it – Zionsville has fewer gas stations than Carmel yet they have lower prices…
Ultimately, smart consumers have memories, and act accordingly. I’m not lucky enough to live in a $2.76 zone but I have a pretty good way of avoiding the primary culprits. My concern with such price wars is that ultimately someone else is paying for the difference in price; while Southside Indy enjoys Dubai-like pricing of gasoline, one could see how the rest of the city is paying for it.
Meijer sent the obligatory message about prices going up – so south side Indy folks hurry up to get your selfies taken with the old gas prices 🙂
Just out of curiosity, how many gallons of fuel does a decent station sell per day? Let’s say 2000-5000 gallons a day. Losing 35c a gallon at 2.75 and actual cost of 3.10 would mean losing between 700 and 1750 bucks a day. Unless there’s a lot more people going inside for Big Gulps I don’t see the high margins of inside covering the losses of outside.
So, if you own a few stations and locate them in both high and low price zones… Not a bad deal.
Greedways around Muncie and Anderson just went up to $3.29. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm will the others follow?
Turbo46032…
During the year Chicago spot prices may range from well below NYMEX RBOB (usually in the early winter) to 50 cents or more above it (usually in the mid to late spring)
I’m not too concerned about a spike to $3.29. That’s an increase of only 20 cents over the market average. Clearly, the long-term trend is still downward — for now.
Just a minor adjustment.
3.29 is way lame but skillfully crafted to avoid > .50c hikes. Wonder if a onesie twosie is in progress…
Or, maybe $3.29 is the perfect math for the current situation.
Again, not EVERY SINGLE CHANGE has to be met with cynicism and conspiracy.
The last seven spikes raised our market average this much (most recent to oldest):
15 cents
16 cents
19 cents
13 cents
17 cents
16 cents
17 cents
The largest I could find in the last six months was 23 cents.
So even if a couple bargain-basement stations increase more than that during a given spike, I guarantee that there’s nothing “skillfully crafted to avoid” 50-cent hikes.
I concede that recent hikes have been “mild”. But being from Fort Wayne, this mild swinging is not normal.
http://www.csnews.com/product-categories/fuels/ft-wayne-indiana-holds-title-wildest-gas-price-fluctuations
$2.88 at Greedway in Grand Rapids – filling up before the spike.
The cynic in me will wonder whether the low-level spike of the average is due to prices not falling sufficiently in most of the Speedway states (unless you’re in a low price zone). In other words, the spikes and reluctant price drops manage to keep prices high despite much lower crude prices…
Pretty clever strategy if you ask me. Only offer lower prices to a fraction of your customers, stiff the rest, drop the prices less than before, then claim prices are more ‘stable’.
Still, kudos to Speedway for not going for the gold (3.35+).
Turbo, I’m not saying they are stiffing us, but it is a fact that it is much much easier to profit higher during falling prices than it is when prices ate climbing. All one must do is “drag your feet” on dropping your prices.
South Bend spike to $3.29 today
Dropped again in Ionia to 2.79 today!
Just paid $2.099 this morning. I can’t remember the last time I bought E85 above $3/gallon. That really only happens outside of the corn belt, and it should never be above $3 here.
I filled up this morning for 3.04 in Lansing. Perhaps I was a bit premature.
Looks like Brent broke through a significant technical resistance point. After hours screens look impressive. MI/OH could avoid a spike tomorrow if they’re seeing the same afterhours screens I am… WOW.
PNW spots are the lowest in the country: a mere $2.15/gal for conventional. That’s a HUGE drop vs just a few weeks ago.
These numbers are getting reminiscent of the 08/09 recession.
This almost brought tears to my eyes. I filled up at a Kroger station in White Lake Twp and with my Kroger Card I paid $1.95 a gallon. Yes, you read it right, under $2. per gallon. The price without my Kroger card was $2.95. I almost felt like I went back in time paying under $2 per gallon. 😉
Glad to see somebody enjoying this. It’s a good thing, after all.
I think the biggest factor in lower price spikes may be the fact that we are at the tail end of the season, and prices in general are falling.
I’m also wondering if this isn’t a Speedway Spike today, but a spike by another retailer, like Meijer. Speedways are all over the map on price right now.
$2.74 in Greenville Michigan right now and $2.78 in the Ionia/Lowell area. Grand Rapids and near burbs for the most part is around $2.99 as I type. http://oilprice.com/ Interesting stuff. Lottsa oil in the pipeline if you will and many recent discoveries all around the world…so fuels will/should/MAYBE remain fairly low for some time to come.
BAD thing is is that a lot of this surplus is EXPENSIVE oil, deep underground and or fracked. As the price falls so does the incentive to go after it. Then supply falls and the price goes up and then THEY START the circle all over again.
Enjoy.
In South Bend, Admiral went from $3.11 to $3.29 a day after the Speedway hike. Now down to $3.08. I don’t think Niles MI ever spiked, ~ $3.05 just over the state line.
Ohio average 3.077. Spot 2.40. Can’t see Speedway letting a second week go by with spreads in the 60’s. Hopefully spot will continue it’s downward trend.
I will say, it IS nice to finally be considerably under the national average.
Here in West Michigan at 11AM…$2.62 in Greenville at various stations. $2.68 in Lowell area. FASCINATING!
Cincinnati average below $3.00.
This on TV13’s website this morning.
GREENVILLE, Mich. (WZZM) — If you’re looking for cheap gas, look no further than Greenville. GasBuddy.com says the cheapest fuel prices in the nation are in Greenville, where the price dipped to $2.55 per gallon for regular unleaded Monday morning.
Bought gas in Hastings on the way home last night for $2.67 at the Admiral on Broadway. All the rest of the stations in town were $2.97 to $2.99, now I see they’re at $2.63 this morning?
Seeing a $2.55/gallon price in Michigan I’d have to be asking myself “how long can the dealers go on losing so much per gallon?” The answer of course is quite different for Meijer as opposed to the Citgo dealer (if it’s his or her only station).
@Victoria, where is there are Kroger in White Lake? Did you mean the Commerce Kroger?
ArrowFlinger, I was driving, but wasn’t familiar with the area. When I asked my friend who was giving me directions for where we were going, said she thought it was White Lake Twp. Obviously, she was mixed up! Looking at the Kroger Station locations I’m pretty sure it was the one in Milford, Michigan. Sorry for the mis-information.