oil down, prices up? Confused.

[Carolina Cuts]

Crude Oil dropped over $4.00 a barrel yesterday...
Gas station up the street raised their prices???

Any educated ones care to explain this nonsense, because I'm at loss at this point...

[topsites]

Maybe the gas station owner is speculating.

[Borsenik9]

the "price per barrel" that you hear about is for futures. this price is what people are paying/ buying a barrel of crude for that may not even be pumped out of the ground until next year- it works similar to the stock market- so it has little effect on prices today:dizzy:

[Charles]

I made a thread on this subject where the government has been investigating price fixing. They just disclosed the existance of the investigation. This supposedly made the barrel price drop:

http://www.lawnsite.com/showthread.php?t=232821

[DLCS]

the "price per barrel" that you hear about is for futures. this price is what people are paying/ buying a barrel of crude for that may not even be pumped out of the ground until next year- it works similar to the stock market- so it has little effect on prices today:dizzy:


Right, but if the price of crude goes up, gas stations raise the price imdediately.:dizzy:

[All_Toro_4ME]

Right, but if the price of crude goes up, gas stations raise the price imdediately.:dizzy:


Yes they do. They definately do.

[Borsenik9]

I agree they do, and they can, because people (uneducated ones) continue to think that the prices of the two are tied, and that therefore they should pay more. on a side note, gas is NOT too expensive- if it were, wouldn't we drastically change our lifestyle?

[ExcaliburLawnCare]

IF I remember correctly, gas station managers only have a 5-10 cent discretion for proximity competition, whereas corporate actually sets the price for the day.

[Carolina Cuts]

Right, but if the price of crude goes up, gas stations raise the price imdediately.

that's the BS i can't stand.....
they're quick to raise it... slow to drop it....

[shovelracer]

IF I remember correctly, gas station managers only have a 5-10 cent discretion for proximity competition, whereas corporate actually sets the price for the day.

You are correct. Back in HS i worked at a station and the manager would get a call from the corp letting him know what to change it to and at what time. This is the case with franchise stations. Not sure if it works the same for private no name stations.

[J&R Landscaping]

IF I remember correctly, gas station managers only have a 5-10 cent discretion for proximity competition, whereas corporate actually sets the price for the day.

I understand this but when there are 5 stations, same brand and such with-in 10 miles... each's prices are different. The only stations who seem to be the same is Sunoco.

[topsites]

that's the BS i can't stand.....
they're quick to raise it... slow to drop it....

We have only seen the beginning...

Now with all the big chains of convenience store / gas station and their digital road-side signs and fancy touch-screen registers and the pumps all nice looking what we don't see is they are all tied in to a central network server at their headquarters. Further it is possible for someone at that central station to change prices on the fly, at any station, anytime, at their will and whim, with a few mouse clicks.

No longer does a manager have to reset every register and run outside to manually change the numbers on the road side sign, the prices change behind the scenes and it's only obvious if you're looking, but that's only the visible benefits.

The hidden, more sinister effect is that folks at the central station can now see in real time the register records and fuel flows and thus accurately predict rush hour flows, when it is that most folks drive and stop for gas at any and every station or store of theirs... They then raise the price of fuel by several cents a gallon during peak hours, and lower them again during the slower times, all of this could happen several times in a 24 hour time frame...

And what choice does a customer have, en route to or from work, we're tied to our world by the clock and much as we'd like to get out of the rush hour ritual we are nevertheless creatures of habit... So we pay what it asks for.

Milking the customer at its finest.

This I was reading in a European magazine about a year ago...

[DLCS]

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/05/30/oil.market.enron/index.html


Interesting article.