FINALLY, a pearls before swine comic strip that reminds me of the “glory days” of comic strips from the days when newspapers existed in a physical form: a comic strip that is child-friendly by way of teaching the “reader” a new vocabulary word!!!! Yay!!!! Dan aka…
LOS ANGELES — A $50 million settlement over price gouging at the pump means some Californians are now eligible for a little money back.
In July, the California attorney general announced the settlement with three gasoline trading firms that allegedly worked together to manipulate gas prices nine years ago, violating California antitrust laws, according to the office of Attorney General Rob Bonta.
A lawsuit brought in 2020 by the Department of Justice alleged that the companies took advantage of a market disruption following an explosion in February 2015 at an Exxon Mobil refinery in Torrance “to engage in a scheme to drive up gas prices for their own profit,” officials said. As a result, California consumers paid more for their gas.
The settlement does not include an admission of fault from the trading companies.
“Market manipulation and price gouging are illegal and unacceptable,” Bonta said, "particularly during times of crisis when people are most vulnerable.
As part of the settlement, Vitol, SK Energy Americas and South Korea’s SK Trading International have agreed to pay the total amount of $50 million into two settlement funds. Of the total, $37.5 million will be distributed to consumers as compensation for violations of the Cartwright Act.
If you filled up your gas tank between Feb. 20 and Nov. 10, 2015, in Los Angeles, San Diego, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, Kern, Ventura, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo and/or Imperial counties, you may be eligible for payment.
No information has been made available on the amount each claimant might receive.
To qualify for a settlement payment, you must submit a claim online or fill out a form and mail it by Jan. 8, 2025.
To fill out the form you’ll need to provide your name, address, and driver’s license. The form will also ask you which counties you purchased gas in during the 10-month period in 2015.
When I was a kid, my dad ran one of three lumberyards in a smallish town (approximately double what the town really needed). My mom would call around and ask what they were charging for one item or another (gallon of paint, pound of bright 16d nails, dozen 2×4s 8 feet long…) so he could set a competitive price. Of course their spouses all called around for the same purpose. He explained that it was perfectly legal to do that: Anybody, including your competitor, can come into your store and check what you are selling for what price. But what would NOT be legal would be an agreement among the three managers to set prices higher than normal. I understood it easily at the age of 10 and still do.
Gas stations can do the same thing of course. Though there are very few who set their own prices, because their supplier / brand does that.
No conspiratorial meetings are required for retail gas prices to be (almost) identical. First, and most obviously, they post their prices on signs for all to see. Second, if they’re busy, prices go up — and vice versa. Many consumers are price-conscious, so gouging is difficult anywhere there are competing sources.
Rat is economically illiterate. Yes, price-fixing will lead to similar pricing. But no, similar pricing isn’t evidence of price-fixing, because normal competition will also tend to result in everyone offering the product for about the same price (since any business trying to charge more than surrounding businesses will soon see their sales drop as customers go "screw this, we’re not buying from the overpriced shop).
Competition leads to most businesses keeping their prices close to that of their competitors, at least for identical products (one gallon of gas is about the same as any other), it will differ more for products which aren’t exactly the same from place to place (like a premium hamburger vs a Big Mac).
As long as there is a “corporatocracy”, yes, they will always fix things to their advantage. Price gouging is the American way these days. On the other hand, most of us here have a place to live and food on the table, so that’s a step ahead of the majority of people.
Solution approach time. Not a comic suggestion, but maybe Pastis can come up with an angle?
What if there was a progressive profits tax linked to monopolistic market share? Call it pro-freedom anti-greedom taxation. Detect problems in several ways, but mainly (1) Lack of choices for customers, and (2) Complaints from wannabe competitors who want to offer more choices, but are blocked from entering the niche.
I remember “gas wars” back in the 1960s, where competing gas stations, often within sight of each other, would keep lowering their prices. The lowest I remember is 22¢ a gallon. I wonder why you never see gas wars anymore… I’m guessing that it maybe that gas stations’ gas prices are fixed at the corporate level? Or that the gas station model is completely different now: gas stations now are almost always attached to a “convenience store” (where the real profit is generated). Gas stations back then were almost always attracted to a garage where work can be done on vehicles. The only “convenience” products sold were candy, cola, coffee and cigarettes.
Not like that in my area either. Gas prices range nearly $1 from low to high. There are places where gas stations next to each other differ by 20 to 30 cents per gallon.
These comments show our educational system has been an utter failure. Economic illiteracy abounds. Of course, Mr. Pastis has a conspiratiobal mind. He’s very funny, but much better when he sticks to the everyday foibles of humans (like most of these comments). Try Words and Numbers podcast.
Market convergence… same product, same process, same distribution. You can expect the prices to be about the same. The truth is that every drop of oil and every oil well is different from the next. They differ in production costs but that makes the calculation difficult. So, everyone uses references like WTI, Brent, and OPEC, depending on the market, for its base material cost and adds along the production/distribution chain. The other factor is market offer. If everyone around you offers at a certain price, you don’t want to be the most expensive. With a bottom limit, based on estimated costs calculated from the same references, and a top limit, based on market offer, convergence is (could be) expected. Oil is a complex market with a limited number of players and a long chain of production/distribution. It’s not the same for meat or farm products or other markets where convergence could happen eventually but it’s too difficult to reach.
One solution is becoming independent of Middle Eastern oil and even being able to sell our excess to friendly allied countries. Drill, baby, drill. Also employs thousands of Americans, fuels the economy and fights inflation. God Bless America!
Gas prices reflect 3 things: (1) government regulation/taxes (2) availability (3) competitionSince the government’s actions determine the first two, the oil companies must deal with the third. In other words, the oil companies deliver the lowest price possible through competition, not “price fixing”. The government is WAY more responsible for fixing the price of a gallon of gasoline with its energy policy.
25 years ago I lived in Northwestern MI. Starting Memorial Day weekend, all of the gas stations within 30 miles of where I lived raised their prices on Friday, then lowered them on Tuesday
Not sure to what degree you can blame the stations. Every state has a gas tax which each station much charge (and it varies from state to state so all stations in state X will be below state Y). And stations have to pay for the gas they sell (overhead). Unless you’re located by a gas station or some other “must fill up” spot you need to stay competitive with the stations around you so prices in areas will often stay close (see Adam Smith). Example of price-fixing above was by the gas distributors, not the stations who were sold the over-priced gas and had to pass the expense on.
If your supermarket has a gas station, use the “Jenny Song” phone number. Particularly good if you have an upscale neighborhood’s area code.
I had one for Safeway registered in my name for years, considered it a “community card”, and fully expected it to be used for gas, just like the nice people who used it when buying groceries EARNED the points. Some don’t want a loyalty card, or are visiting from an area without Safeway, whatever.
Only I could convert gas rewards (into free items) so it was quite a nice deal even if I never used the gas rewards. I no longer have it but use other area codes and often get $1 off per gallon.
You might be able to see if there are rewards ahead of time, by asking the gas attendant or by going into the store and using that number to buy a small item. Tally shows on Safeway (Albertson’s affiliates) receipt.
In my town in north-central Arizona, a state that has prices that tend to run higher than the national average, we had prices per gallon around $3.35.9 for regular unleaded. Then a somewhat seedy little-noted gas station/convenience store rebranded as a Sinclair station—among the first I’ve seen anywhere in Arizona—and dropped its price to $3.09.9. The local gas stations have started dropping their prices to $3.29.9 or so. Yesterday I checked the Sinclair again, expecting the low price was just a short-term promotional fluke. Now $2.99.9. I haven’t paid that cheap since a cross-country drive a year ago, in Iowa or whatever. The larger Circle K across the street at $3.25.9 is still busy, so there’s probably something to the food/soda/booze/cigarettes-selling being more important to the customers and the bottom line than the gas price, but still…………….
If you go up on Interstate 40 to Williams (Gateway To the Grand Canyon), the single gas stations at the exits on the far ends of town will probably be $4.49.9 a gallon while the “downtown” Circle K will be $3.19.
There’s a wide spread in gas prices around here. You can buy generic gasoline from Costco or pay a buck a gallon more for generic gasoline from a “name” brand. Oregon has no oil or refineries, so it all comes down from Washington.
isn’t that because there’s only like 3 gas suppliers and all the stations get their gas from one of those 3 suppliers? And the price for gas is set on the open market. it can be traded like any commodity
Not only that some mysteries can never be solved, but there are things humankind is not meant to know. Rest easy in your ignorance, sit back, watch the blinking lights, and take the blue pill.
Rat needs to install solar, buy a used BEV, collect the generous rebates & enjoy “filling up” his battery at home for about $2.50……total, not per gallon. No more trips to the gas station,….ever.
“At almost the exact same price” is the key, they are different by 5 or 7 cents, hence there is competition. I have 3 gas stations that are all the same company btwn me and work, and they are all slightly different by 2 to 7 cents.
Or, the prices are nearly the same thanks to competition. That is likely the lowest they can go without being stupid about it, unless competing companies are helping each other out.
Price “fixing”? Seems to me that prices are still “broken” and escalating out of control. Another meaning of “fixing” is to securely attach it to something stable.
Boy, isn’t that the truth! How do we get screwed, let me count the ways: backdoor thefts of agency funds, pension fund thefts, bank thefts, Savings & Loans thefts, mortgage thefts, price thefts, wages theft…
It’s not price fixing if the government does it! LOL
In my country the gas prices are controlled by the government. It is the government that sets the price. The cost per gal. is the same everywhere in the country at every gas station.
HATE it when I have to stick up for a sleazy industry, but this just points to the fact that Mr Pastis hasn’t worked in a corporation – not dig, because I’m envious. I worked for two that had to be competitively priced, without giving away the farm (both had REALLY narrow margins). There’re three obvious means of checking what one’s competitor is up to: loss of sales; customer complaints; and, just plain LOOKING. Oil companies don’t need to collude because all of these work for them.
The really interesting part is how they price gas to different stations. I lived in north San Diego County – about 90 miles from the LA refineries. He paid twice what his friend with a station in Blythe (240 miles away) did. These markets are old and established, so companies know what a local market will bear. AND, when you hate the price at your local station, member, they’re making almost nothing off of gas – it’s service and snacks where they make their money.
I seldom find even two gas stations in town with the same price. The expensive gas is in the area of the university and off-campus student housing – except for maybe one station.
And they all raise their prices at exactly the same time. We’ve had antitrust laws on the books since the Gilded Age, but strenuous and consistent enforcement of them occurred in a narrow window of maybe fifteen years, and that over a century ago.
My gym is in the next town over, and it’s fun to see how gas prices vary. Yesterday, some stations were 26 cents cheaper than in my city. The closer stations are together, the more likely they will match prices because of competition.
Here in Santa Cruz, CA, prices vary by as much as 20%, and you can see a Chevron station across the street from a cheap station charging $1 more, and cars there pumping gas. I think people believe “Techron” is good for their cars. The same tanker truck sometimes fills both stations’ tanks, I’m told, and then the driver pours a gallon of Techron in at the Chevron station. You can buy Techron at an auto parts store and it is cheap. But tell people often enough that Techron is good and some of them believe it. (Consumer Reports says it does nothing.) The claim that all the stations have the same price is nowhere close to reality.
In Oklahoma, the state enforces price fixing for gasoline. They require that the price of gasoline in an area be similar. Stations can be sued if their price is more than 10 cents per gallon lower than other stations in the area.
Monitoring your competitors’ prices is not price fixing. It is good business.Price wars, which occasionally result, also not price fixing.Truth be told, price fixing is like quicksand and shark attacks. Talked about endlessly but rarely occurring.
No conspiracy is needed to explain why the prices of commodities are similar. Most gas stations are franchises, which can set their own prices.Think of it from the point of view of a new franchise owner. He looks at the prices other gas stations are charging and sets his prices to slightly more to see what happens. Then, perhaps, he gets no business so he reduces his price to what the nearest gas station is charging. If he doesn’t get the volume of business he needs , perhaps because people aren’t used to stopping at his new gas station, he’ll reduce the price below what nearby gas stations are charging. But it isn’t going to diverge too much from the local standard.
A similar story could result in him charging a bit more than nearby gas stations, perhaps because his gas station is slightly more convenient to get to. But in any case for a commodity like gas, where what is being sold is the same, the price will of nearby gas stations will converge.
So no conspiracy is needed to explain why the prices of commodities are similar. On the other hand products like comic strips are not a commodity: the product produced by different creators is wildly different, so some creators will get paid more than others. I really enjoy Pearls so I hope Stephan is one of the creators making the big bucks
Wisconsin has a state law you cannot change the price more than once every 24 hours. A lot of stations jacked up pricing after the attacks on 9/11 and never got in trouble for it…..
If you charge more than everybody else, it’s “price gouging”
If you charge the same as everybody else, it’s “price fixing”
If you charge less than everybody else, it’s “predatory pricing” (you’re trying to force everybody else out of business so there will be no one else to go to when your prices go up significantly)
Take enough steps back and they are all buying from the same sources. Which are in turn influenced by the price of a barrel of crude oil. Which is set to follow the biggest producers demand for profit. Which is set by greedy rich people who are not an actual price fixing monopoly because the law says so. At no point does the President or Congress get a say in this.
I’ve always said you can’t win if you’re a gas station owner. If you price higher than others, you’re “price gouging.” If you price lower than others, you’re “predatory pricing.” And if you price the same as others, you’re “price fixing.”
I remember when they told us unleaded cost more than leaded because lead had to be removed from the gasoline. Then when leaded cost more than unleaded they told us it was because lead had to be added to the gasoline. At some point they were definitely lying to us.
Bilan 3 months ago
“Get together?? We didn’t get together and fix the price! It’s just a coincidence.”
DanielRyanMulligan1 3 months ago
FINALLY, a pearls before swine comic strip that reminds me of the “glory days” of comic strips from the days when newspapers existed in a physical form: a comic strip that is child-friendly by way of teaching the “reader” a new vocabulary word!!!! Yay!!!! Dan aka…
BasilBruce 3 months ago
It’s just their way of “servicing” us.
Seth down 3 months ago
When prices can’t have babies anymore
Yakety Sax 3 months ago
LOS ANGELES — A $50 million settlement over price gouging at the pump means some Californians are now eligible for a little money back.
In July, the California attorney general announced the settlement with three gasoline trading firms that allegedly worked together to manipulate gas prices nine years ago, violating California antitrust laws, according to the office of Attorney General Rob Bonta.
A lawsuit brought in 2020 by the Department of Justice alleged that the companies took advantage of a market disruption following an explosion in February 2015 at an Exxon Mobil refinery in Torrance “to engage in a scheme to drive up gas prices for their own profit,” officials said. As a result, California consumers paid more for their gas.
The settlement does not include an admission of fault from the trading companies.
“Market manipulation and price gouging are illegal and unacceptable,” Bonta said, "particularly during times of crisis when people are most vulnerable.
As part of the settlement, Vitol, SK Energy Americas and South Korea’s SK Trading International have agreed to pay the total amount of $50 million into two settlement funds. Of the total, $37.5 million will be distributed to consumers as compensation for violations of the Cartwright Act.
If you filled up your gas tank between Feb. 20 and Nov. 10, 2015, in Los Angeles, San Diego, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, Kern, Ventura, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo and/or Imperial counties, you may be eligible for payment.
No information has been made available on the amount each claimant might receive.
To qualify for a settlement payment, you must submit a claim online or fill out a form and mail it by Jan. 8, 2025.
To fill out the form you’ll need to provide your name, address, and driver’s license. The form will also ask you which counties you purchased gas in during the 10-month period in 2015.
mnexplorer+ 3 months ago
Yeah, pretty much.
MeanBob Premium Member 3 months ago
In a word, Yes.
blunebottle 3 months ago
Rat gets it!
Uncle Kenny 3 months ago
Unless the gas station is on an airport complex or near its entrance. Then the price will be about 55 cents higher.
sbenton7684 3 months ago
NOT like that where I live. There’s a price variance right now of a low of $2.89 a gallon to $3.29 a gallon.
orinoco womble 3 months ago
Price fixing and price gouging are twins.
Concretionist 3 months ago
When I was a kid, my dad ran one of three lumberyards in a smallish town (approximately double what the town really needed). My mom would call around and ask what they were charging for one item or another (gallon of paint, pound of bright 16d nails, dozen 2×4s 8 feet long…) so he could set a competitive price. Of course their spouses all called around for the same purpose. He explained that it was perfectly legal to do that: Anybody, including your competitor, can come into your store and check what you are selling for what price. But what would NOT be legal would be an agreement among the three managers to set prices higher than normal. I understood it easily at the age of 10 and still do.
Gas stations can do the same thing of course. Though there are very few who set their own prices, because their supplier / brand does that.
Ink blot Premium Member 3 months ago
No conspiratorial meetings are required for retail gas prices to be (almost) identical. First, and most obviously, they post their prices on signs for all to see. Second, if they’re busy, prices go up — and vice versa. Many consumers are price-conscious, so gouging is difficult anywhere there are competing sources.
Ichner 3 months ago
Rat is economically illiterate. Yes, price-fixing will lead to similar pricing. But no, similar pricing isn’t evidence of price-fixing, because normal competition will also tend to result in everyone offering the product for about the same price (since any business trying to charge more than surrounding businesses will soon see their sales drop as customers go "screw this, we’re not buying from the overpriced shop).
Competition leads to most businesses keeping their prices close to that of their competitors, at least for identical products (one gallon of gas is about the same as any other), it will differ more for products which aren’t exactly the same from place to place (like a premium hamburger vs a Big Mac).
cdward 3 months ago
As long as there is a “corporatocracy”, yes, they will always fix things to their advantage. Price gouging is the American way these days. On the other hand, most of us here have a place to live and food on the table, so that’s a step ahead of the majority of people.
shanen0 3 months ago
Solution approach time. Not a comic suggestion, but maybe Pastis can come up with an angle?
What if there was a progressive profits tax linked to monopolistic market share? Call it pro-freedom anti-greedom taxation. Detect problems in several ways, but mainly (1) Lack of choices for customers, and (2) Complaints from wannabe competitors who want to offer more choices, but are blocked from entering the niche.
Indiana Guy Premium Member 3 months ago
I remember “gas wars” back in the 1960s, where competing gas stations, often within sight of each other, would keep lowering their prices. The lowest I remember is 22¢ a gallon. I wonder why you never see gas wars anymore… I’m guessing that it maybe that gas stations’ gas prices are fixed at the corporate level? Or that the gas station model is completely different now: gas stations now are almost always attached to a “convenience store” (where the real profit is generated). Gas stations back then were almost always attracted to a garage where work can be done on vehicles. The only “convenience” products sold were candy, cola, coffee and cigarettes.
Cactus-Pete 3 months ago
Not like that in my area either. Gas prices range nearly $1 from low to high. There are places where gas stations next to each other differ by 20 to 30 cents per gallon.
donlackie 3 months ago
The real villain is the oil futures market… they set the prices at no risk to themselves
Timothy Abraham Premium Member 3 months ago
These comments show our educational system has been an utter failure. Economic illiteracy abounds. Of course, Mr. Pastis has a conspiratiobal mind. He’s very funny, but much better when he sticks to the everyday foibles of humans (like most of these comments). Try Words and Numbers podcast.
James Wolfenstein 3 months ago
Market convergence… same product, same process, same distribution. You can expect the prices to be about the same. The truth is that every drop of oil and every oil well is different from the next. They differ in production costs but that makes the calculation difficult. So, everyone uses references like WTI, Brent, and OPEC, depending on the market, for its base material cost and adds along the production/distribution chain. The other factor is market offer. If everyone around you offers at a certain price, you don’t want to be the most expensive. With a bottom limit, based on estimated costs calculated from the same references, and a top limit, based on market offer, convergence is (could be) expected. Oil is a complex market with a limited number of players and a long chain of production/distribution. It’s not the same for meat or farm products or other markets where convergence could happen eventually but it’s too difficult to reach.
jbmlaw01 3 months ago
Free competition brings prices to the lowest level possible. Regulation pushes prices to the highest level possible.
Huckleberry Hiroshima 3 months ago
Oil companies own the government. Mystery solved.
happyinvenice23 3 months ago
Hey rat, go and check out how they handle That in N Korea, China, n Russia., you’ll be back hear a more thankful rat!!
Count Olaf Premium Member 3 months ago
One solution is becoming independent of Middle Eastern oil and even being able to sell our excess to friendly allied countries. Drill, baby, drill. Also employs thousands of Americans, fuels the economy and fights inflation. God Bless America!
Lenavid 3 months ago
Gas prices reflect 3 things: (1) government regulation/taxes (2) availability (3) competitionSince the government’s actions determine the first two, the oil companies must deal with the third. In other words, the oil companies deliver the lowest price possible through competition, not “price fixing”. The government is WAY more responsible for fixing the price of a gallon of gasoline with its energy policy.
Ellis97 3 months ago
Gas prices are insane.
iggyman 3 months ago
Rat, they always blame the cartel!
timbob2313 Premium Member 3 months ago
25 years ago I lived in Northwestern MI. Starting Memorial Day weekend, all of the gas stations within 30 miles of where I lived raised their prices on Friday, then lowered them on Tuesday
MS72 3 months ago
govt price fixing, taxed to keep them happy.
LawrenceS 3 months ago
Not sure to what degree you can blame the stations. Every state has a gas tax which each station much charge (and it varies from state to state so all stations in state X will be below state Y). And stations have to pay for the gas they sell (overhead). Unless you’re located by a gas station or some other “must fill up” spot you need to stay competitive with the stations around you so prices in areas will often stay close (see Adam Smith). Example of price-fixing above was by the gas distributors, not the stations who were sold the over-priced gas and had to pass the expense on.
Ignatz Premium Member 3 months ago
Unless they actually call each other on the phone and say “Let’s fix prices” it’s legal. And they aren’t that stupid.
They all know how it works, and know the others know how it works. So they don’t have to say anything to each other. And that makes it legal.
GumbyDammit223 3 months ago
Pretty much….sigh.
franki_g 3 months ago
coupon-er tip for personal gas price reduction
If your supermarket has a gas station, use the “Jenny Song” phone number. Particularly good if you have an upscale neighborhood’s area code.
I had one for Safeway registered in my name for years, considered it a “community card”, and fully expected it to be used for gas, just like the nice people who used it when buying groceries EARNED the points. Some don’t want a loyalty card, or are visiting from an area without Safeway, whatever.Only I could convert gas rewards (into free items) so it was quite a nice deal even if I never used the gas rewards. I no longer have it but use other area codes and often get $1 off per gallon.
You might be able to see if there are rewards ahead of time, by asking the gas attendant or by going into the store and using that number to buy a small item. Tally shows on Safeway (Albertson’s affiliates) receipt.
LNER4472 Premium Member 3 months ago
In my town in north-central Arizona, a state that has prices that tend to run higher than the national average, we had prices per gallon around $3.35.9 for regular unleaded. Then a somewhat seedy little-noted gas station/convenience store rebranded as a Sinclair station—among the first I’ve seen anywhere in Arizona—and dropped its price to $3.09.9. The local gas stations have started dropping their prices to $3.29.9 or so. Yesterday I checked the Sinclair again, expecting the low price was just a short-term promotional fluke. Now $2.99.9. I haven’t paid that cheap since a cross-country drive a year ago, in Iowa or whatever. The larger Circle K across the street at $3.25.9 is still busy, so there’s probably something to the food/soda/booze/cigarettes-selling being more important to the customers and the bottom line than the gas price, but still…………….
If you go up on Interstate 40 to Williams (Gateway To the Grand Canyon), the single gas stations at the exits on the far ends of town will probably be $4.49.9 a gallon while the “downtown” Circle K will be $3.19.
chris_o42 3 months ago
Yes Rat, you speak the truth.
david_42 3 months ago
There’s a wide spread in gas prices around here. You can buy generic gasoline from Costco or pay a buck a gallon more for generic gasoline from a “name” brand. Oregon has no oil or refineries, so it all comes down from Washington.
Count Olaf Premium Member 3 months ago
It is amazing how the very same gas in the very same storage tanks goes up 20¢ a gallon overnight.
Dom999 3 months ago
isn’t that because there’s only like 3 gas suppliers and all the stations get their gas from one of those 3 suppliers? And the price for gas is set on the open market. it can be traded like any commodity
karenjean123 Premium Member 3 months ago
You got it RAT!
carlosrivers 3 months ago
Spot on rat…
Chris 3 months ago
sadly, yes… :L
ladykat 3 months ago
Actually, Rat, you’re probably right.
royq27 3 months ago
Much of the price of gasoline is made up of govt taxes. So, in a way the prices are basically the same because of the preponderance of tax…
bittenbyknittin 3 months ago
I miss gas wars.
rugeirn 3 months ago
Not only that some mysteries can never be solved, but there are things humankind is not meant to know. Rest easy in your ignorance, sit back, watch the blinking lights, and take the blue pill.
jerwag389 3 months ago
Rat needs to install solar, buy a used BEV, collect the generous rebates & enjoy “filling up” his battery at home for about $2.50……total, not per gallon. No more trips to the gas station,….ever.
kaystari Premium Member 3 months ago
“At almost the exact same price” is the key, they are different by 5 or 7 cents, hence there is competition. I have 3 gas stations that are all the same company btwn me and work, and they are all slightly different by 2 to 7 cents.
Zippy007 3 months ago
Or, the prices are nearly the same thanks to competition. That is likely the lowest they can go without being stupid about it, unless competing companies are helping each other out.
Dis-play name 3 months ago
Price “fixing”? Seems to me that prices are still “broken” and escalating out of control. Another meaning of “fixing” is to securely attach it to something stable.
lanainutahdesert 3 months ago
Boy, isn’t that the truth! How do we get screwed, let me count the ways: backdoor thefts of agency funds, pension fund thefts, bank thefts, Savings & Loans thefts, mortgage thefts, price thefts, wages theft…
mfrasca 3 months ago
“The rent is too d@mn high!”
—Jimmy McMillan
Price fixing is the business model of RealPage.
Linguist 3 months ago
It’s not price fixing if the government does it! LOL
In my country the gas prices are controlled by the government. It is the government that sets the price. The cost per gal. is the same everywhere in the country at every gas station.
IndyW 3 months ago
Gas prices are also based on the delivery cost based on the distance from refinery to the rack, then by truck to the store.
timinwsac Premium Member 3 months ago
If you go to a station that’s close to the exit ramp of a freeway gas will be 50 cents a gallon higher than the station two blocks down the street.
waes-hael 3 months ago
HATE it when I have to stick up for a sleazy industry, but this just points to the fact that Mr Pastis hasn’t worked in a corporation – not dig, because I’m envious. I worked for two that had to be competitively priced, without giving away the farm (both had REALLY narrow margins). There’re three obvious means of checking what one’s competitor is up to: loss of sales; customer complaints; and, just plain LOOKING. Oil companies don’t need to collude because all of these work for them.
The really interesting part is how they price gas to different stations. I lived in north San Diego County – about 90 miles from the LA refineries. He paid twice what his friend with a station in Blythe (240 miles away) did. These markets are old and established, so companies know what a local market will bear. AND, when you hate the price at your local station, member, they’re making almost nothing off of gas – it’s service and snacks where they make their money.
Rose Madder Premium Member 3 months ago
I seldom find even two gas stations in town with the same price. The expensive gas is in the area of the university and off-campus student housing – except for maybe one station.
Procat Premium Member 3 months ago
Remember when gas was under 50 cents they filled you tank, washed your windows, and at times you could collect plates or glasses.
old_geek 3 months ago
Fox news is to blame.
And climate change….
John Jorgensen 3 months ago
And they all raise their prices at exactly the same time. We’ve had antitrust laws on the books since the Gilded Age, but strenuous and consistent enforcement of them occurred in a narrow window of maybe fifteen years, and that over a century ago.
marilynnbyerly 3 months ago
My gym is in the next town over, and it’s fun to see how gas prices vary. Yesterday, some stations were 26 cents cheaper than in my city. The closer stations are together, the more likely they will match prices because of competition.
[Unnamed Reader - 14b4ce] 3 months ago
And gas prices automatically zoom upward on weekends, Especially summer weekends
BobCaldwell1 3 months ago
To answer Rat’s final question. Yes.
Michael Beeson Premium Member 3 months ago
Here in Santa Cruz, CA, prices vary by as much as 20%, and you can see a Chevron station across the street from a cheap station charging $1 more, and cars there pumping gas. I think people believe “Techron” is good for their cars. The same tanker truck sometimes fills both stations’ tanks, I’m told, and then the driver pours a gallon of Techron in at the Chevron station. You can buy Techron at an auto parts store and it is cheap. But tell people often enough that Techron is good and some of them believe it. (Consumer Reports says it does nothing.) The claim that all the stations have the same price is nowhere close to reality.
John Lamb Premium Member 3 months ago
In Oklahoma, the state enforces price fixing for gasoline. They require that the price of gasoline in an area be similar. Stations can be sued if their price is more than 10 cents per gallon lower than other stations in the area.
raybarb44 3 months ago
Something similar…..
Kellbone 3 months ago
Yes, that is the solution…
mpolo11 Premium Member 3 months ago
Not the case in Seattle and suburbs. Prices vary by a lot even over short distances. I’ve started paying attention.
DaBump Premium Member 3 months ago
Meh. Somebody needs to study economics. Also, there’s a fair bit of variation in gas prices here, all things considered.
Ishka Bibel 3 months ago
Monitoring your competitors’ prices is not price fixing. It is good business.Price wars, which occasionally result, also not price fixing.Truth be told, price fixing is like quicksand and shark attacks. Talked about endlessly but rarely occurring.
AZPhinFan 3 months ago
and gas prices are usually more expensive when located near to the freeway. Nope, no price fixing there….
minty_Joe 3 months ago
What isn’t factored in is that recent report regarding the Hess Corporation and Chevron (or Exxon) deal that kept gas prices so high for years.
mikeBridges 3 months ago
No conspiracy is needed to explain why the prices of commodities are similar. Most gas stations are franchises, which can set their own prices.Think of it from the point of view of a new franchise owner. He looks at the prices other gas stations are charging and sets his prices to slightly more to see what happens. Then, perhaps, he gets no business so he reduces his price to what the nearest gas station is charging. If he doesn’t get the volume of business he needs , perhaps because people aren’t used to stopping at his new gas station, he’ll reduce the price below what nearby gas stations are charging. But it isn’t going to diverge too much from the local standard.
A similar story could result in him charging a bit more than nearby gas stations, perhaps because his gas station is slightly more convenient to get to. But in any case for a commodity like gas, where what is being sold is the same, the price will of nearby gas stations will converge.
So no conspiracy is needed to explain why the prices of commodities are similar. On the other hand products like comic strips are not a commodity: the product produced by different creators is wildly different, so some creators will get paid more than others. I really enjoy Pearls so I hope Stephan is one of the creators making the big bucks
FRITH RA 3 months ago
Get an electric car, protons are cheaper.
PAR85 3 months ago
Rat actually makes sense here.
moondog42 Premium Member 3 months ago
Wisconsin has a state law you cannot change the price more than once every 24 hours. A lot of stations jacked up pricing after the attacks on 9/11 and never got in trouble for it…..
sincavage05 3 months ago
In a word, YES!
del_grande Premium Member 3 months ago
If you charge more than everybody else, it’s “price gouging”
If you charge the same as everybody else, it’s “price fixing”
If you charge less than everybody else, it’s “predatory pricing” (you’re trying to force everybody else out of business so there will be no one else to go to when your prices go up significantly)
theoldidahofox 3 months ago
In our area there is about a 30 cents per gallon difference among gas stations.
eddi-TBH 3 months ago
Take enough steps back and they are all buying from the same sources. Which are in turn influenced by the price of a barrel of crude oil. Which is set to follow the biggest producers demand for profit. Which is set by greedy rich people who are not an actual price fixing monopoly because the law says so. At no point does the President or Congress get a say in this.
Schaller Handmade Knives 3 months ago
I’ve always said you can’t win if you’re a gas station owner. If you price higher than others, you’re “price gouging.” If you price lower than others, you’re “predatory pricing.” And if you price the same as others, you’re “price fixing.”
swadeparker Premium Member 3 months ago
I remember when they told us unleaded cost more than leaded because lead had to be removed from the gasoline. Then when leaded cost more than unleaded they told us it was because lead had to be added to the gasoline. At some point they were definitely lying to us.
eric_harris_76 26 days ago
If the prices differed by much, do you think the ones which charged the most would do the most business, or the ones that charged the least?
You probably can figure out the answer, without any help. And your livelihood doesn’t even depend on getting that answer right.
The people who run gas stations care a lot more about this, and already know the answer. And they behave accordingly.
SMH.