Gas price merry-go-round

It used to be (way back in August, i.e., pre-Katrina) that you could pretty much count on certain gas stations in the area to be consistently at the low end of the price spectrum, and others to be at the high end. That meant that when you needed to fill the ol' gas tank, you didn't need to constantly be shopping around, on the lookout for the best price. You could just go to your nearest "reliably-low-end" station and fill'er up, reasonably confident that you weren't going to kick yourself upon finding a markedly cheaper price three blocks away. A penny or two, maybe, but nothing to get excited about.

No more. Ever since the price of gas skyrocketed after Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, all bets are off. Prices bounce around unpredictably, and what's (relatively) cheap today may be gouging tomorrow. Case in point: a couple of weeks ago I posted about the huge price jumps locally on August 31. The Wawa, where I've typically been buying my gas lately, was still at the "low end" at $2.729, while the Crown station near my work ramped it up to $3.039. As prices continued to rise daily (and sometimes, so it seemed, hourly) over the next week or so, that relationship remained pretty much the same: the Wawa was among the cheapest around (though it pains me to talk about $3+ gas as "cheap"), and the Crown was among the highest. Now prices have begun to fall back, but not consistently.

Today, on my way to work, I noted that the Wawa, and another station a couple blocks away, were both down to $2.879. Good, I thought, I need to fill my tank and I can stop at either of those on my way home. Nothing else is likely to be significantly cheaper. Yeah, right. I was astounded to see that the Crown station is now down to $2.759, and in fact has the lowest price I've seen around the area. Go figure.

So I filled the tank at the Crown station. 12 cents a gallon saved, and it couldn't be more convenient.