Buy the most expensive gas you can

Agree. Saw a Frontline episode a few nights ago about Walmart. Real eye opener. From now on I'm buying from the independents, regardless of price.

 

If it fits your budget, more power to you, but don't assume that everyone can afford getting gas at the most expensive station.

 

Ummm, because the cheapest is 2 blocks from where I live?

If it's more convenient and I'll be saving only about a dime or so, I'll go there. But the next closest station to my house (same brand) is 10 cents more per gallon. It's empty, but I'd rather save money than time.

Remember Patience and Prius both start with "P." :lol:

 

yep, i've got more time than money so i'd be fine to sit and wait. there's really not much sitting and waiting around here anyway, unless we make the hike down to the sams club gas station. the nearest place is a kroger about a half mile down the road, and we get 10 cents off per gallon 1-2x per month for their grocery rewards program. and it's usually a few cents cheaper there than other local places anyway.

 

in our neck of the woods those standing in line at costco usually do for about 5 minutes running their motors, of course this isn't an issue with a prius per se ...

any who, i just upgraded to Tiger OS 10.4.7 on a Mac and there's a widget (similar to Yahoo widgets) for cheapest gas and it works, I've got about 5 choices within 2 miles and none are Costco'ish.

http://www.interdimensionmedia.com/gas3/index.html

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(naterprius @ Aug 26 2006, 02:25 PM) [snapback]309842[/snapback]</div>

Gee, I buy *regular* for that price in most parts of town at the ordinary stations. On the other hand, the Shell station up the street, charges a good $.20 more per gallon.

Given the already high prices & the exhorbitant rate of my local station, I'll take a pass.

That said, I do understand why anyone would NOT want their local stores to be driven out of business by the big box stores...

 

Costco is out of the way. I generally keep track of the gas stations on my route to and from work and buy from the most inexpensive on my trip. I rarely have to wait.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(hdrygas @ Aug 26 2006, 05:42 PM) [snapback]309942[/snapback]</div>

The Costo with pumps is out of my way too, plus it's generally crowded and is either the same, or slightly more expensive than the station next to my house.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(naterprius @ Aug 26 2006, 02:25 PM) [snapback]309842[/snapback]</div>

 

Thanks for those websites, naterprius...

I live on Long Island...some of the low prices were at stations not too far from me...around $2.80-2.90/gallon. I use a local Getty station...have for years. I paid $3.11 this week.

terri

While I do shop at Costco...maybe once a year now, if that...and do go to Home Depot...e.g., I do try to patronize our local hardware and other local stores...rather than large chains...if they have what I need.

So...with Gas...the best price nearest me on one of the websites is farther away than I drive most of the time.

 

Iavoid Walmart after the scandal with the illegal aliens here subcontracted as cleaners. And I try not to buy products made in China, but you know it's hard.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(barbaram @ Aug 27 2006, 07:40 PM) [snapback]310319[/snapback]</div>

I am glad im not the only one.

 

I've been doing this and writing about it here for quite some time. Most folks just ignore me and move along.

I do it purely to do my part to remove pricing wars. I don't want gasoline to go lower - which is obviously what happens when people are not willing to buying anything but the cheapest. Expensive gas isn't the answer to all of our problems, but cheap gas is certainly responsible for many of them.

I don't do it at all for convenience. I won't waste time/money driving out of my way, but I choose the most expensive station, not the nearest to my house. The pathetic part, of course, is how little gasoline I use anyway. But hey - I try to do my part.

Yes, I hear all the time how not everybody can afford to pay more for gas than what's at the cheapest stations. I wonder... what happens when the price of the cheap stations jumps 20c? Can't afford it? When it jumps $1.00? Can't afford it? We just keep paying it, don't we?

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(darelldd @ Aug 27 2006, 08:51 PM) [snapback]310397[/snapback]</div>

Excuse to not want to buy an EV #315: I can't afford one. Who can save money when all of it is going to fill the tank?

Excuse to not want to buy an EV #316: Who needs one? Gas is cheap!

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(naterprius @ Aug 26 2006, 03:25 PM) [snapback]309842[/snapback]</div>

You've got to love the anti-Walmart crowd...

Costco sell it's gas for at least 10 cents below the gas station down the street, and the lines are so long at Costco that you decide to go to the gas station down the street where there's no line, but costs you $0.80 a tank more. Why is there no line at the other gas station? Because everyone drove by it on their way to Costco to save 10 cents a gallon. So, what reason do you give for not buying gas at Costco? The line is too long.

Now, Walmart sells it's gas at a similar discount. So why wouldn't you buy gas at Walmart? Well, they're trying to drive independent gas stations out of business of course!!!

So explain to me why you don't think that Costco is trying to drive indepent gas stations out of business, while you think Walmart is? Wouldn't the owner of the gas station down the street from Costco appreciate having more customers? Isn't his life harder because Costco is undercuting his price by so much? Did you know that 10 cents per gallon is probably more than the profit he makes on a gallon of gasoline?

 

I don't think people are against WalMart because they believe the store is trying to put everybody else out of business. It's because they treat their people so badly. Do a little survey. Go to WalMart and look at the employees. Around these parts, they all look a little beaten down. They aren't overly friendly and seem to have little knowledge of the things they sell. Not to start a class-warfare string, but they mostly seem like they are from the lower end of the economic scale. We know they are paid very low wages and find benefits like health insurance difficult to obtain. I don't think they get much training either.

In Costco, I am greated with a smile, people are there to answer technical questions when I need them and there is a lot of comraderie among the workers. I see employees that have been there for years, unlike the crew at WalMart that never seems to last long. Costco has brands that are a lot more familiar than so many of the no-name items at WalMart. And Costco's return policy is unique. Not happy? Bring it back. Try that at the little-guy store.

WalMart, by the way, is a large Republican donator while Costco favors the Democrats with their money. I can't imagine that corporate philosophy enters into any of this though....

Every store would be happy to see its competitors go out of business. This is the "American Way." Big stores abound in this country going back to Sears, Roebuck.

BTW, the "support the little guy" concept rarely makes it down to the little guy. I remember shopping at a little mom-pop store who knew what I did. When it came time for them to buy an airline ticket, they didn't call United, American or TWA. They went through every hoop they could find to get the cheapest ticket available.

So, explain to me again why I should want to pay more for the same or less. Shell gasoline is always 20 cents higher than anybody else. I took the blindfold taste-test and could tell no difference. I never wait for more than a couple of cars ahead of me at Costco, and I'm usually there for something else anyways.

Expensive gasoline, touted as a way of reducing use, is only effective at the per-barrel price, not per-gallon. Per-barrel affects everybody, per-gallon is too local to do any good. We're not helping anything by buying at Shell vs. Costco.

(When will spell-check be fixed? This is hard on me! :blink: )

 

I have Citi dividend card that offered 5% cash back(now only 2%). I don't even bother to go to Costco since at $3/gal of average price, I get 15c back per gallon, cheaper than if I get gas at costco, and I save time.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Clar @ Aug 29 2006, 01:59 PM) [snapback]311281[/snapback]</div>

I think 2% of $3 = 6 cents, not 15. And Costco is always better than 6 cents lower unless I really go scrounging (and wasting time.)

Costco also has rebate cards. You pay a bit more for them (I think is is about $100 vs. $50 for the basic membership) but last year I got over $500 back from the combination of AMEX and Executive cards, which anybody can get. (I paid $0 interest for using these cards.) The AMEX card is free.

But again, I think this has evolved into a time vs. money debate. Dealer's choice.....