Bouncing Hedgehog » gas

Why Am I Being Ripped Off?

admin — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 21:35:04 +0000

Around two years ago gas prices in the US took a big hike – well over $4 a gallon for me. They literally doubled and as a result my grocery bill also doubled. I bitched at the time but put up with it purely and simply because I understood that delivery prices to the supermarkets would also have doubled. Most supermarket suppliers here have no choice but to ship by road no matter where they are shipping from. The rail infrastructure sucks so road is it.

However, gas prices now are significantly less than that high that was reached. As a result the prices I pay at the grocery store should also have dropped accordingly. After all, as they said at the time, it was the price of gas causing the problem, not them. But they haven’t. Not at all. I am still paying the same price in a lot of cases and MORE in many others.

Grocery prices in the US are much higher than elsewhere in the world anyway. Many years ago that wasn’t the case. Back in 1973 when I first lived in the US grocery prices were significantly cheaper than the UK – where I hail from. When I came over here in 2003 that position was reversed. The UK was way cheaper. What happened America?

Anyway, back to the present. Gas prices have gone down – my grocery bill has headed in the other direction. Not even for a few weeks was the drop in gas reflected in supermarket prices. So just who is responsible for me feeling ripped off? Trucking companies not dropping their “unavoidable” rise in delivery costs? Or the supermarkets who liked the higher prices which once gas prices dropped meant higher profits?

Pump Prices In WV Again

admin — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 22:43:37 +0000

Further to my earlier post about gas prices and how a wonderfully accurate survey said that pump prices were expected to peak this summer at $2.55 I think it was.

$2.55? I wish!

Now of course I am sure there’s absolutely no price fixing whatsoever going on in my area, but it really does seem odd to me that every single gas station (many different vendors) in my area have got gas at $2.75 today. So I guess the survey wasn’t worth the paper it was written on as summer is barely here and our prices are already 20 cents higher than the expected peak.

I will grant you that that price is in West Virginia and I know we pay more than our neighbors in Virginia, but I would be genuinely interested to know what people are paying elsewhere in the country.

Low Pump Prices Lure Americans Back To The Road

admin — Fri, 22 May 2009 20:36:02 +0000

I was interested to see an article today with the headline “Low pump prices lure Americans back to the road.” Really? Low pump prices? Where?

According to this survey (conducted by AAA) the average pump price in the US was $2.39 per gallon at the time of writing. Although with peak summer demand approaching – not to mention the spurious tax imposed by government at this time – they expect pump prices to peak at $2.50 per gallon.

$2.39 per gallon? That was last week in WV. My local gas station now has prices at $2.55 per gallon which is commonplace around the area. Gas has jumped by 40 cents in the last ten days. Did somebody fart in the Middle East and the oil companies got scared again? Did I miss that?

Oh, and incidentally, for a nation that has a knee-jerk reaction to taxation, why the hell do Americans put up with a government levied tax on gas just because it’s summer?

Just a thought.