Gas Broke $5 a Gallon!

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DX
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Gas Broke $5 a Gallon!

Post by DX » Wed Jul 09, 2008 6:25 am

Greenwich gas stations have some nerve: I saw $5.05 today [for regular unleaded] at a station in the business district. $5! And I thought the $4.49 on the Merrit Parkway and the $4.66 here in Easton were bad! What a time to move to Connecticut...back in Jersey they finally broke through $4 in my old neighboorhood, still holding at $3.89 in Midland Park though.

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sbell25
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Re: Gas Broke $5 a Gallon!

Post by sbell25 » Wed Jul 09, 2008 9:20 am

Yeah, gas prices are hurting here in Aussie too. It's $1.66 per litre ($6.30AUD per US gallon) at the moment so it costs me around $100 to fill my car up. Just a few months ago it was around $1.25 per litre so it's going up quick and it hurts!

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Re: Gas Broke $5 a Gallon!

Post by Twisted » Wed Jul 09, 2008 9:28 am

boo hoo. Im in england, and its £1.50 a litre
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cantab
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Re: Gas Broke $5 a Gallon!

Post by cantab » Wed Jul 09, 2008 10:44 am

Second LOLing at Americans moaning about their petrol prices. You think you have it bad, come to the UK, where it'll cost you around $9 a gallon. Of which about HALF is tax!

(That said, the taxation is only part of the reason for such a high figure. The weak dollar makes the price seem even higher when expressed in such)

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SSCBen
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Re: Gas Broke $5 a Gallon!

Post by SSCBen » Wed Jul 09, 2008 11:43 am

It's $4.10 a gallon on regular at the gas station I work at. Yes, I do work at a gas station part time.

Don't talk about moaning about gas prices. I've heard and seen it all. Some people ask me to lower gas prices for them, as if I can do that (I can't without the password but I do know what setting I need to change). Some people ask if I know what the price will be in the future (How would I know?). Many people try to steal gas, so much so now that I was told to not let people pump without paying first. Once some woman told me to put some money on one gas pump and she pumped from the other (this was before I didn't let people pump first). When she went over the amount she originally paid for she came in and demanded the difference come out of my salary.

What is starting to annoy me are the people who come in very angry that I don't let them pump first and then pay. The thing is that more than half of these people get a square dollar amount of money so I have no idea why they don't pay first anyway. If you pay first the pump will end on the amount of money you paid or at least very close. So they don't have to slow down pumping to get a square dollar amount at the end.

I had one guy who came in and said "Boy, I haven't ever paid for gas before I pumped it and I've been driving for 35 years." The only thing I could say was "Well, with so many people stealing gas today, you have to now." I hate explaining to some people that they have to pay first to fill up.

Only sometimes do people actually read the sign on the pump that says to pay first instead of standing out there for 5 minutes angry while it doesn't let you pump and come in. Thankfully that's becoming more common as people get used to it.

I hate the people who ask if I get a discount on gas too. I tell them that the owner doesn't even get a discount, and even if he did, it wouldn't amount to much. The owner explained to me that you don't run a gas station to sell gas. You run a gas station to break even on gas and get people to go into the convenience store while, before, or after pumping. With drive-offs (gas stealing) I don't think our station even breaks even on gas.

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Drenchenator
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Re: Gas Broke $5 a Gallon!

Post by Drenchenator » Wed Jul 09, 2008 1:24 pm

Gas prices are pretty high now, and I am that Americans really have it easy; our gas is much cheaper when compared to the prices in Europe and Japan.

Somewhere in the US after Hurricane Katrina, gas broke 6 dollars a gallon in some areas, but it wasn't for a long time. The problem with prices know if that they're not just spiking temporarily; they're going to keep rising.

To add on to what Ben said, I know there was a fairly recent article (last 2 months, I think) in the Washington Post about how the individual gas stations can't really change the gas prices without trouble from the oil companies. They gave an example: One station lowered their prices slightly in the hopes that they would attract more customers and make more money. But the oil company they buy their gas from noticed and charged them more for gas, lowering their profits! Station's don't sell gas to make money.
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Spinner
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Re: Gas Broke $5 a Gallon!

Post by Spinner » Thu Jul 10, 2008 7:45 am

Ben wrote:The owner explained to me that you don't run a gas station to sell gas. You run a gas station to break even on gas and get people to go into the convenience store while, before, or after pumping. With drive-offs (gas stealing) I don't think our station even breaks even on gas.
Interesting to hear it from someone in the know; I suspected as much, but now you've confirmed it for me. :cool:
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MarsGlorious
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Re: Gas Broke $5 a Gallon!

Post by MarsGlorious » Fri Jul 11, 2008 1:50 am

The gas prices will probably continue to go up. If you want to see how America and Australia will look in the future (cars, gas and public transport), look at Europe. Small cars will eventually catch on. :confused:
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StormGlorious
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Re: Gas Broke $5 a Gallon!

Post by StormGlorious » Fri Jul 11, 2008 4:27 am

My hope is that people start to look towards more fuel efficient methods of transport. Who knows, we could see another bike boom just like in the 70's.

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Re: Gas Broke $5 a Gallon!

Post by MarsGlorious » Fri Jul 11, 2008 6:05 am

Have any of you guys heard of the car that's made out of carbon composites. It's a great idea, because you can have big, safe cars that are really lite. :)

PS. In most cars only 1% of the energy is used to move the driver. :eek:
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SSCBen
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Re: Gas Broke $5 a Gallon!

Post by SSCBen » Fri Jul 11, 2008 6:38 pm

I had read about inflatable cars. Despite how silly that might sound, it's a rather sound idea in my mind. Accidents will be much less dangerous. Gas mileage would improve dramatically. The car itself will be better thermally insulted. The only real disadvantage I can see is that it might look weird, other than popping the car, which would be avoided through durable materials of course.

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Silence
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Re: Gas Broke $5 a Gallon!

Post by Silence » Fri Jul 11, 2008 10:21 pm

Ben, I always thought there were cameras that captured license plates to prevent drive-offs. I guess I was wrong.

I'll never understand why New Jersey still does full service. It's the only place I know of that makes pump operators fill up your car for you. It seems like a big waste of money.

Virginia seems to have decent gas prices right now. At the moment I want the prices to spike so that we change our ways, but my opinion will probably change once I start paying for gas. ;)

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SSCBen
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Re: Gas Broke $5 a Gallon!

Post by SSCBen » Fri Jul 11, 2008 10:52 pm

I'd imagine most gas stations do have cameras that catch license plates. However, Ingram's Shell is still using 1980s technology. I've seen the video feed and it merges the one in-store camera with the one outside camera into one picture. The outside camera is stuck on the lower right of the picture and is small. The video itself only records a frame every few seconds and what it does record is unclear.

A lot of stuff there is a blast from the past. There are no bar codes. I have to memorize many prices. You can't pay the diesel or kerosene pumps outside with a credit card because there's no scanner (I truly wish we had one because it would save me so much time). We have no screen to sign credit card purchases with so we use a pretty old ticket printer for that and we keep the tickets. You get the picture.

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DX
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Re: Gas Broke $5 a Gallon!

Post by DX » Fri Jul 11, 2008 11:15 pm

As a reply to the Europeans, of course Americans are complaining, your prices have been high for a while and you've adapted, we haven't...change in this country goes at a snail's pace and only when a problem hits the wallet. Gas was $10 a barrel in 1998...the jump to $140 something in a decade is a LOT. We had the problem in the 70's, should have learned, oh well. I didn't think I'd see $4 gas in my lifetime, now it's at $5.

I used to know the reason for Jersey self-service...oh I know this... *hits head*...I forget. I think there was some safety issue or something weird like that...either way I enjoyed it. Convenient, creates a few jobs...it's actually against the law to pump it yourself.
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MarsGlorious
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Re: Gas Broke $5 a Gallon!

Post by MarsGlorious » Sat Jul 12, 2008 12:50 am

America generally leads the world in these sorts of things. Instead the government decided to waste billions of dollars on the war in Iraq. :confused:

Most people in Australia thought it was a bad idea before it started. When America isn't leading the world, Europe, I suppose, has to. :D

Australia always just follows what the most powerful country is doing. We're so good at following that economists are worried the housing shortage/mining boom might cause recession. :D

Well, that's fellow colonials for you. :cool:
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