[Laminar]

E15 typically comes in at 88 octane, so it could be that, though it's usually only about $0.20 under E10 around here. E85 is marketed as 85% ethanol but is usually somewhere from 70-85% ethanol depending on the station, season, etc. Most of what I get is about 77%.

[subego]

I very easily could have misread. I was split between parsing the fine print and not crashing.

[Laminar]

They just did it again - saw E15 got down to 2.71⁹ and the next day it was back at 3.05⁹.

[ghporter]

My fave spots are down to $2.69⁹ today. But some stations on opposing corners of highway intersections are playing “bump it up” while keeping pace with the other’s bumps. So about a mile from my house there are two stations that are charging $2.99⁹ for regular, while I can go 3/4 mile in a different direction and pay 30¢ less a gallon…

[subego]

Cheap Mobil had been solid all week at $3.97⁹, but was up 12¢ today. My control suburban Speedway was 3.44⁹.

[ghporter]

Well, my noting the corner "bump it up" price war was off the mark. It was just that those stations were ahead of the curve.

The whole area went up to $2.99⁹ for a day or two. Now it's drifting down a bit, to $2.95⁹ most places. I have no idea what happened or why, but there it is.

[ShortcutToMoncton]

Out of curiosity, why do you guys care about this so much?

[Laminar]

In the absence of anything interesting to talk about, conversation naturally reverts to gas prices and weather.

[subego]

Gas is life.

[andi*pandi]

it is interesting seeing the trends in different places, especially as compares to regional politics and who to blame/praise for prices, supply, etc.

[subego]

This was my actual reason for starting the thread. Wanted to see what things were like in other markets. What’s the current Toronto price?

[Laminar]

BTW Canadian gas prices are traditionally reported in beaver pelts per milk bag.

[ShortcutToMoncton]

I actually don’t know, to be honest. I mean I vaguely think it’s somewhere around $1.50 a litre but I could be off wildly. I’ve never felt the need to check or compare gas prices. When I need gas, I stop at a gas station and pay whatever price they charge. Seems like a lot of energy to try and save a few bucks by planning around stopping at a certain station without driving any extra distance? But I don’t commute a whole lot, so maybe if I was driving some gas guzzler a thousand kilometres a week I’d probably be more interested.

[subego]

When I didn’t have to commute, I didn’t care. Now I do, so I do.

[ShortcutToMoncton]

Yeah, I fill up my little truck once a week, maybe twice at most. I’ll probably start doing a bit more driving soon, but again it’s not crazy.

[ghporter]

On Thursday I noticed a couple of stations with $3.19⁹ on their signs. On Friday, everybody was charging $3.19⁹ for regular. Today some of them have backed off to $3.15⁹. I have no clue why these prices have fluctuated as they have...

[andi*pandi]

perhaps they surge on days when Trump is indicted?

[ghporter]

Possible. Now I’m hoping for more gas price surges.

Locally the going rate fell from $3.15⁹ down to around $3.08⁹ over the past few days. Dunno what’s next, but I’m still remembering the summer of 2008, when regular was over $4.50⁹, even here in San Antonio…

[subego]

Cheap city Mobil: $4.09⁹
Contol suburban Speedway: $3.79⁹

Surprisingly, I passed a different Mobil in the city, right off two interstates no less… also $3.79⁹. Didn’t see any “cash price” type fine print.

Suburban Corn syrup: $3.29⁹

[ghporter]

Here’s something that’s curious, at least to me.

Nowadays, gas stations and convenience stores are no longer locked to each other. For example, there are local 7-11s that have different brands of gas, and local “refiner’s brand” stations can have different convenience stores attached.

So I’m curious if the weirdness in prices I’ve seen lately has more to do with the gas brand’s directives than where the station is located.

Case in point: local Valero station, about 3/4 mile from my house popped their regular price up to $3.19+ a few days ago, and the other Valero stations around have been pretty much in step with this station.

Meanwhile, the grocery chain stations (H-E-B) has been pretty steady, except yesterday the closest of these popped up their price to $3.09+…for the day, and it’s now back to $2.99+. These stations aren’t lockstepped; sometimes they adjust their prices (apparently) related to their location.

By the way, I’m using “$3.98+” instead of going to the trouble to get that darn superscript to work on my iPad. Just so you know.

[subego]

In general, the norm here is for the convenience stores to be “house brand”. We have some Circle Ks. Very few 7-11s I can recall.

[reader50]

I've read that gas stations primarily make their profit on the store side. So a mismatch between gas and store is odd.

[subego]

My off-the-cuff guess is when there’s a mismatch, the fuel provider charges the franchise owner more for fuel and infrastructure, probably to the point where fuel operates at a loss. Fuel providers give better rates to their own franchises, so the fuel and infrastructure is break-even for them, but in exchange, the provider demands a bigger cut from the convenience side.

[subego]

Finally saw E85 for real. It was at $2.99⁹, or a dollar off the regular.

[ghporter]

Here we are, two weeks later, and the local prices are still going up and down “like a crazy monkey is at the switch.” I can’t make sense of it.

Local refiner brand: up to $3.39 for a day, then down to $3.19, and now $3.09. Grocery brand: up to $3.19, there for a while, then down to to $3.09 where it’s been for a couple of days.

While I’m not hanging on every word in the news, I haven’t seen anything that should cause a 10% rise in retail gas prices (the $3.39), or a drop to where they are now. I think the gas price-setters are just making things up as they go.

[reader50]

I expect gas prices to become more variable as the EV population increases. When demand falls and becomes erratic, you'd expect prices to jump around a lot more.

But we're maybe 10 years away from that point. EVs have not hit 50% of new car sales yet, much less 50% of the existing fleet.

Glenn, it may be a local effect. Prices here in CA have been steady from week to week. Currently around $4.80 a gallon.

[subego]

It was $4.44⁹ at a bunch of places in the city, including the cheap Mobil.

Had to go to the hood. That was $4.14⁹.

Finally ended up at my suburban Speedway where it was $4.27⁹. That surprised me. I was expecting cheaper.

[reader50]

Eggs have been dropping. A week ago, it was $5 for 18. Today it's $4.29 for 18.

The price for a dozen involves coupons, so I'm not sure of the real dozen price.