Gasoline. Do you price shop or just buy where it is close?

[Kern Dog]

Something that has always confused me is the wide price gap between gas stations here in California.
Here is a major gas retailer with a price that was on the low end in Sacramento:

Awhile back, they changed their pricing structure to the lower price for cash and the higher price for debit or credit.

Here is one of the more expensive retailers not far from the ARCO:

Right there is a 66 cent difference in the low grade regular gas.
I often see stations across the street from each other with this wide price difference.
The expensive station still gets customers but often not as many.
I have bought gas at high end and dirt cheap stations and never found a difference in performance or mileage. I see it as foolish to pay 10% more per gallon for zero difference except a thinner wallet.
Why would anyone pay more? Why would you?

 

[khryslerkid]

I'm fortunate enough to have a station very close that is determined to have the lowest prices in town. And he does by 20 cents or more.

As far as shopping for a cheaper price you have to have common sense. Driving ten miles to save .02 a gallon is useless. You'll use up the difference if not more.

Once in awhile we go to Maryland to visit folks and the price is 20 to 30 cents cheaper because of the difference in taxes. Good time to fill up.

 

[toolmanmike]

Sam's is close and usually the cheapest in town.
GasBuddy.com can be your friend.

 

[OH71RRunner]

I usually buy gas from certain places:
Sunoco
Shell
BP
Marathon

Our gas prices don't fluctuate too much between different stations in this area. Maybe 10 cents or so. That's not enough difference for me to run across town or a few miles elsewhere to save a couple bucks.

 

[Kern Dog]

I usually buy gas from certain places:
Sunoco
Shell
BP
Marathon

Our gas prices don't fluctuate too much between different stations in this area. Maybe 10 cents or so. That's not enough difference for me to run across town or a few miles elsewhere to save a couple bucks.

I noticed that when in Tennessee and Georgia last year.

I don't have a problem finding the lowest price or at least something close to it. I just wonder why people buy gas at the expensive places.
The closest station to my house is an expensive one. I never fill up there. IF I do buy gas, it is only a few gallons. How can this be considered a smart business model to price yourself out of business?

 

[eldubb440]

end of my street........lowest in the area......complete with "idiot did that" stickers

 

[1 Wild R/T]

Theres a place near my house thats on the cheap end of the scale where I often fill up, theres also a place near my shop thats the cheapest around
I rarely fill up there cause theres always a line, usually a couple pumps are out of service & they only take cash...

 

[33 IMP]

When you are filling up a 50 or 60 gallon tank (or two) you price shop. My cheapest place in town is just a couple miles further down the road than some of my typical mandatory trips, and can save 40 or 50 cents a gallon. If I'm filling up 10 or 15 five gallon cans at the same time, it can mean $50 savings over the local guy.
(And about three bucks a gallon cheaper than the local california guy, $7.39 for diesel when I went by today.....)

 

[eldubb440]

i also get my off road diesel there to heat my shop......heating oil delivery requires a minimum purchase

 

[GTXDAN]

I usually buy at the Walmart gas station in the little town where I live south of ATL. They have the cheapest gas south side of ATL and are always busy. Right now Reg. 2.84
Diesel is about 4.50

 

[OH71RRunner]

I'll pay more for a trusted brand.

The fuel supplier usually tells the stations what to set prices at unless the station is independent and has unbranded fuel.

I had a friend years back that owned a little corner shop gas station. They had BP fuel. She always threw a fit when BP would tell her to put a price that was 20-40 cents higher than down the street. 2-3 days later, the other station down the street would raise their price.
She made something like 3 cents per gallon sold. Didn't matter if it was regular or premium.

 

[Kern Dog]

I have heard that "story" about the small profit margin that stations supposedly make and I really doubt it.
If a Chevron, Shell, Valero or BP are charging 50-60 cents more a gallon than some small independent station, that argument makes no sense.
"Ginger", my red Charger runs the same on any 91 octane fuel with over 10 to 1 compression. My 2007 Ram 1500 runs the same on any 87 or 89 octane fuel. I have yet to see any difference to justify the massive difference in prices.

 

[Budnicks]

I go to the same place, prices up here don't vary much...
$0.10 cents maybe between Speedy, Marathon & Arco
my truck Dakota 4x4 5.2ltr with a bunch of bolt-ons & tuner
it runs on pretty much any 87-89 oct.
on the raged edge of needing 91 oct.
But;
It doesn't do well 'at all' on the Arco 87-89 oct. fuel up here...
so I just don't go there, the $0.10 cents saving or $2 a tank isn't worth it...

I only fill-up, like maybe once a month now, prices really vary between fill-ups

In all my travels for decades now, I noticed
seems like stations by freeways are higher priced, than stations away from freeways
with few exceptions 'like truck stops/with restaurants that do a huge volume of fuel/s...
(we don't have a freeway for near 100 miles from here)
IMO it's a convenience thing, people don't want to travel in away from the freeways
they want to get off, get the gas & a drink etc. & get back on the road
laziness on the customers' part (?) I suppose too
but that's a bit of gouging, price wise too...

I would assume the fuel/s wholesale prices are pretty much the same
maybe a lil' differences between brands/suppliers
or people/businesses/stations that don't buy as much in bulk, pay lil' more (?)

My brother Tim had a small service station, he was mostly there for service/smogs
not huge volumes of gas
but to be competitive 'at all' on fuel, he wasn't making much
He claimed like $0.25 cents a gallon profit, for years it was like that
his gas pumps, were more of a convenience, for his regulars
but that was a few years back...
He didn't sell diesel, no room for another 4th tank... small lot
(He's back east now too, he hates it back there, and he regrets the move daily)
His 'Gas/Fuel' pumps were for his mechanical service repairs
& smog, for his service customers...(convenience really)
He did a good business in/on smog checks & AC recharges/repairs, brake jobs,
tune-ups, tire rotations etc.
&
The local PD was right near up/across the street,
some of that kept him "fuel" fat...
He had bankers hrs too...
The same customers 25-30 (maybe 50) different each day every day,
seemingly like clockwork, & he knew most of them by name...
Mostly all older folks down in Antioch Ca., Woody's Service...

 

[cosgig]

Here there is almost a dollar difference in the price between the county I live in and Ann Arbor, where I work. So I burn through about a tank a week, and fill up in town. It’s $4.29 at the station right up at the corner by my house, $3.59 in A2.

 

[Outlawd]

I choose gas stations by quality instead of price, but I only drive 1 mile to work so gas prices have never really bothered me much.

 

[moparedtn]

I choose gas stations by quality instead of price, but I only drive 1 mile to work so gas prices have never really bothered me much.

Agreed. Price isn't a concern to me, since the critters around here all have fairly specific "tastes" in fuel.
Fred the GTX gets the 93 octane alcohol-free stuff; that's a specific gas station in town (yes, it makes
a HUGE difference in the way he runs).
The tractor gets Co-op diesel, since it's "off-road" fuel with all the benefits thereof.
The '04 Ram and the '12 Charger do both drink from the grocery store chains' gas pumps, since we get 20 cents a
gallon off from shopping there - and the gas is actually supplied by a regional company and is better stuff,
too (they both run a darn sight better on 93, of course).
Both of them (late model hemi's) get noticeably better fuel economy on it, too - like 2mpg better.

Across the region, the prices do tend to be competitive with one another - exception being the stations near
the interstate, of course. Those folks are pretty brazen with what they charge.

 

[cosgig]

Now, mind you, I drive into the little town north of me for 110 Turbo Blue for the Roadrunner, that’s $8.99 a gallon, so I save $$ on my daily and spend it on the RR!

 

[YY1]

Around here there's sometimes a 25-30 cent difference.

It's usually either due to proximity and station density near a major road or highway off ramp, but also dependent on who's got their truck and who hasn't if prices are trending up or down.

I pass 5 stations on my way to and from work and there's another two a block the other way from my house.
During the week I have a pretty good idea of what the average price is, and who is the cheapest.
Sometimes one of those two stations near my house is the cheapest in the county.
It's a privately owned Sunoco, and I buy gas there frequently.
Same price cash or credit.
There's another private Sunoco a few blocks away that's more for credit but is sometimes the cheapest cash price for miles.
If prices are high, I might go there as it's an alternate route I can take while on my normal path.

I might drive out of the way for 30 cents a gallon if I'm almost empty and it's really high and trending up.
I'll go across the street for over 5 cents difference if I need a full tank.

I did tests with wal-mart/Murphy 87 gas versus Sunoco 87 in my 27 MPG PT and my 13.5 MPG Dakota 5.9.
The PT got .5 to 1.5 MPG less using wal-mart (that almost exactly made up for the typical 3 cents price difference).
The Dakota didn't care, but the extra distance to wally's made it a non-issue.
All of my cars run fine on 87 except the Dakota will ping under WOT acceleration or lugging.
It doesn't go away until the second full tank of 93, so I just avoid doing those.

The other station a (country) block from my house is a Citgo that also has non-eth.
Higher credit price. Sometimes it's cheaper than the same price cash/credit WaWa that's 5 miles away.
Most often, it's not though. It's kind of a pain to keep up with that.

 

[GTXDAN]

I envy you guys being able to buy non-ethanol gas. You can't buy it around ATL because of the pollution issues. All the counties around ATL have to meet air quality standards and their cars must be emission tested back to a certain year.

 

[ChryslerKid]

I used to not be quite as picky but this is the gas station at my work and by my house its about $5. Ill ride that gas light all the way home if I have to.