Are these Regular - Super Price hikes Legal?

[SnailPower]

This Shell gas station is 5 minutes from me...

Also, if I send it to a news outlet, you think they'll give a sh!t to report it? Wondering if it is as bad as others. In comparison, I re-fueled yesterday at a BP 2 towns away and it was 5.79 for Super while their regular was 4.79.

 

[gixxerfool]

I noticed this as well. Used to be grades had a $.10 variance and that was it. I don’t know if this is price gouging or they are legit paying this much more for higher octanes.

 

[Cuzoe]

I assume a gas station can charge whatever they want. Even stations of the same "brand" are separate businesses... here in Los Angeles you'll see Shell in Beverly Hills charging $1.00 more than Shell in the valley. No different than the first and last gas station before a long highway run in the middle of nowhere charging more for "convenience" really. There's a moral consideration (probably still not a legal one) when you're talking about hiking prices during a hurricane evacuation or similar, but this is just business as usual.

But in your picture, it's possible the station is still selling regular from a prior shipment that cost them less. While premium is a new shipment with a higher cost to them, and now you. I believe some stations only have a regular and premium underground tanks, with mid grade being mixed at the pump.

IF this is the case at that station, they're doing the folks that can use regular a solid by not charging a higher price on gas they haven't yet had to pay a higher price for themselves, and missing out on easy profit. They would be making good money on the mixed mid-grade, but that is their right I suppose.

 

[DSC808]

That's a pretty big variance. Hawaii 2 weeks ago for reference. Went up 15c or so.

 

[Acadia18]

Yes, perfectly legal.

 

[Chogokin]

I assume a gas station can charge whatever they want. Even stations of the same "brand" are separate businesses... here in Los Angeles you'll see Shell in Beverly Hills charging $1.00 more than Shell in the valley. No different than the first and last gas station before a long highway run in the middle of nowhere charging more for "convenience" really. There's a moral consideration (probably still not a legal one) when you're talking about hiking prices during a hurricane evacuation or similar, but this is just business as usual.

But in your picture, it's possible the station is still selling regular from a prior shipment that cost them less. While premium is a new shipment with a higher cost to them, and now you. I believe some stations only have a regular and premium underground tanks, with mid grade being mixed at the pump.

IF this is the case at that station, they're doing the folks that can use regular a solid by not charging a higher price on gas they haven't yet had to pay a higher price for themselves, and missing out on easy profit. They would be making good money on the mixed mid-grade, but that is their right I suppose.

There’s a Chevron in DTLA charging over 8 bucks a gallon. 9 for diesel. It’s 6.39 for 91 in my area.

 

[Cuzoe]

The Chevron close to me, near Van Nuys airport, has always charged $0.50-60 more per gallon diesel in the years I've lived in the valley.

I suspect the only reason is because all the Van Nuys FlyAway busses fill up there, it being the most convenient station between the FlyAway terminal and the 405. Kind of shady but what do you do? FlyAway bus isn't going to drive an extra 2 miles to save $0.50/gal because they're on a schedule even though the overall savings would be significant with how much fuel they buy. That's my personal conspiracy theory, .

I paid $6.70-ish for diesel to fill up this week, with $0.20/gallon off with my Ralph's card.

 

[JC_451]

I wouldn't even buy the 89 or 93 (what happened to 91?) from this station.

With those prices they probably sell very limited quantities of the higher octane gas, since it sells slowly they try to maximize profit. If you're in the market for premium and super it's best to go to stations that sell very high volumes, the gas at this station has likely sat in the ground for longer than you'd like.

There's always a large gap between regular and super here (75 cents) but there's no reason to pay the prices seen here.

TL DR You don't even want the high test gas from here, it's probably old.

 

[tigeo]

Most of the regular stations here in VA the price delta reg to premium is ~$1. Costco has the lowest difference at ~$0.40 typically.

 

[krvnked]

when it hits 7, which it will, its gonna cost 91 to fill up a 13 gallon tank (our cars)

 

[tigeo]

Just got gas at Cost this morning, reg was $4.36, 93 was $4.76 so yeah, $0.40.

 

[cb1111]

Here is a screenshot from NoVA from GasBuddy. The last station here (the Exxon) has figured out a way to scam the system, because their prices are either wrong or routinely disappear from GasBuddy.

I drove by today and the price for premium is 6.999 - generally, this station is a dollar more expensive than everyone else and they are banking (literally) on people looking at the cents and not the dollars. "Hey honey, this station is convenient and only a couple of cents more expensive."

 

[Cuzoe]

when it hits 7, which it will, its gonna cost 91 to fill up a 13 gallon tank (our cars)

I put $80 in my TDI already, earlier this week. Of course, my foot is light as a feather and I get better mileage than you lot with your fast gassers. But diesel is more expensive then unleaded in CA, increased taxes for the additional wear and tear that my heavyweight Golf is putting on the roads .

 

[KevinC]

This stuff really irritates me. The cost to add octane to create the higher grades is a few pennies per gallon. Then you see gouges like this. It's outrageous especially when we're already getting fooked hard by current pricing.

In Kalifornia the tradition of the grades being a dime apart (or close to it) seems to be holding for the most part. But here in Arizona, where regular is much cheaper than over there (despite being the exact same Kalifornia-formula gas), premium is typically 40-60c more than regular per gallon. Go figure.

 

[TCdaosithui]

That's a pretty big variance. Hawaii 2 weeks ago for reference. Went up 15c or so.

how is gas in HI is cheaper than CA? freaking unreal