What To Call These Fat Fingered Hikes?

Comment on the October 6 prediction:  Prices rose in many Speedway states on October 7 to $2.59, but not in Michigan.  So, I don’t know:  1/2 CORRECT, 1/2 WRONG?

Sunday, October 25, 2015, 10:30PM:  I’ve been slow to post anything, because wholesale prices have been slipping all month, and retail prices have followed.  And the drops have been significant.  So that brings us to the hike Michigan this past Thursday, to $2.39, which wasn’t matched in nearby states.  Based on my estimates of the wholesale price, the hike wasn’t in line with past history, and, in fact, the hike has already been rescinded along Lake Michigan Drive.  Other parts of Michigan, of course, are still at $2.39.  I’m estimating a price-to-retailers of about $2.07 right now, so there is plenty of room to fall.

If wholesale prices go up, then I understand why retail prices follow, although I don’t like it.  But when wholesale prices are low, and we still get a hike, which happens a few times a year, well that’s just unacceptable, and we need to coin a term for it.  Bogus hike?  Fat finger hike?  The suggestion box is now open. — Ed A.

Updated: October 25, 2015 — 10:43 pm

37 Comments

Add a Comment
  1. I’m in mid-Michigan and the prices around me before the hike were around $2.29. Yesterday I noticed some stations were already back down to $2.23, so lower than before the hike.

  2. Just a heads up… the reset is getting passed along to Indiana today as well. Going to $2.29. Have already seen many of the speedway stations up in Indy, and also Elkhart, Daleville and Elwood to name a few. Time for me to top off at lunchtime…

  3. Also, watch out in Ohio… seeing stations at least in Columbus and Wooster also rising to $2.29 via speedway that are currently reported at $1.98 and $1.99 on gasbuddy

  4. $2.29 in sw Ohio as well. Stations that were below $2 have made the jump.

  5. Topped off and filled up the wife’s car @ $1.849 yesterday, at UDF(NEVER at Speedway).
    Ah, the sweet smell of victory.

  6. Gratuitous Spikes…

  7. Ohio was about 73 cents over spot. About 10 cents too high to spike…….

  8. Speedway spiking to $2.29 in South Bend, IN today

  9. The obvious name for such a hike is a Greedway Spike

  10. Got gas in Fort Wayne for $1.97. That’s probably all we’ll get.

  11. I was going to go with “The Patented Speedway Greed Grab”.

  12. $2.299 reset in the Toledo area.

    All things considered, it’s still lower than a year ago and all that, so thank heavens for small favors. (Squirrels must have been busy again! 😉 )

    What’ll be interesting is to see if this spike holds. Last one we had, it was back down within a few days. (I wonder if there’s a little “hurricane fear” rippling through the system, since the South is getting hammered right now.)

  13. Gotta love it:
    Putting prices into gasbuddy…. “are you sure? That seems high.”
    Yeah. No kidding.

  14. Anyone else enrolled in GasBuddy get the email about “CentsOff” at Marathon stations? Go it, select CentsOff, enter the code you got in the email, get 5 cents off per gallon. If you are enrolled and didn’t get it, check your spam folder.

  15. Yes, I got that .05 off email today for Marathon.

  16. Monday spike to $2.299. Spot price Tuesday $1.32.
    With state/fed taxes totaling 46 cents in Ohio, ONLY in Speedway country would we be paying almost $1 over spot.
    Greed Grab, indeed.

  17. Here is a twist, speedway station located with no local competition dropped to $2.26. All stations 6 miles away in Ionia at 2.28. It hardly ever happens where this speedway drops below the Ionia area.

  18. looks like 2.11 is break even point,.. another raise soon,..

  19. 2.03 in will county Illinois, and Costco in cook county is at 2.05. That’s the lowest price this year here

  20. Locally on the Cincinnati West side we’ve seen prices decline 8 cents since they followed the spike yesterday morning, now at $2.219.

    EIA report for the week. Gasoline inventories down 1.1 million barrels. I’ll give you one guess which part of the country almost single-handedly accounted for the decline.

    http://www.cincygasprices.com/blogs/text%20deleted/108605_628380/index.aspx

  21. Most of the Greedway’s in Kazoo area are still in the mid to upper 2.30’s. Costco and Sam’s are at 2.04, with most other in the 2.20’s somewhere. They are really reaching if we get another hike this week. But wouldn’t put it past them one bit. Getting close to the holidays, must need to by Jr a new BMW or something.

  22. Looks like Grand Rapids is getting tricked with a spike to $2.49 this morning. So much for a 20¢ margin? Is the spot still in the upper $1.40’s?

  23. Spike to $2.399 in Ohio underway.
    Padding those margins.

  24. Indiana also. Meanwhile North Carolina enjoys under $2.00 prices.

    I’ll be filling both cars today at under 2.00 but it really leaves a bad taste in your mouth to even see these prices at Big Red.

  25. I filled up at $2.11 last night at Lawrenceburg and topped off the other car this morning at $2.15. We could find cheaper but it beats the $2.39 memo price.

    So which refinery is partially shut down to make spot go up 14 cents in 3 days?

  26. yep and in my old childhood town in Arkansas price just dropped another 2 cents to 1.84.

  27. Ed, another “fat finger” hike in Indy today. The spike line deviation as of 10/29 was 30+ cents. After a spike to $2.299 just a few days ago, today the spike is to $2.399. We usually don’t see a spike until the spike line deviation is less than 10 cents and recent history has show it to be much lower–negative in most cases.

  28. Actually, wasn’t surprised at all that it jumped today. Lost the margin yesterday when you looked at the station prices vs spot+adjustment. Many stations in michigan were running below $2.10, around Indy here pushing towards $2… with the spot of $1.46+adjustment of $0.77, meant spike line actually around $2.20-25, so were losing money (the algorithm seems to be not working… doesn’t seem like the numbers changed all week despite spot being up). Luckily, caught in time and filled up still for $2.03 anyway since I was down to my last 3 gallons.

  29. Sorry, was wrong on the prices a bit, was looking at the diesel adjustments, but in any case, many of the stations slipped below break even yesterday. Patrick was hinting on twitter that this might be coming soon. Really wish it was easier to find a place to know what spot numbers are tracking since this doesn’t always get updated every day.

  30. Lucky for me that I checked this site soon enough to fill a very empty big gas tank before the spike hot Fort Wayne. Thanks EVERYBODY!

  31. Yesterday gas at the Kroger station I go to was 2.05. Today it jumped to 2.49. That’s .44 jump for no reason! That’s outrageous. Other stations by my house are still 2.05, but if I go to the Kroger station, I’ll get .80 off per gallon by using my Kroger card points. My points expire today so I’ll get gas for 1.69, but I was looking forward to only paying 1.25. SMH

  32. Played the game: Kroger was still 2.039, cashed in my remaining 300 points, and filled up @ $1.739, 66 cents below the GREEDway spike price.
    Win again.

  33. Certainly a trick from Greedway! (You expected a TREAT??!! :-p )

  34. Today the price at the Kroger Station dropped back down to 2.05. However, the Marathon and Greedway by me are still at 2.49.

  35. Hey Patrick I’m baaaaack.

  36. Victoria, where is it back to 2.05 in Michigan? Here its barely begun to erode to the low 240s.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Please leave these two fields as-is:

Protected by Invisible Defender. Showed 403 to 1,759,283 bad guys.

 

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

TheGasGame.com (c) All Rights Reserved Frontier Theme