Gas Prices

[Henry]

Drove down to Costco on Wednesday and as I was driving in noticed that Regular Gas was $3.529 which was a tremendous difference from what I saw here in Fairfax, so I drove in and filled up since my tank was down to a quarter of a tank.  Gas here in town took a drop also yesterday when I saw it was down to $3.669 at Nans.

I've been told that the wholesaler tells the retailer what to sell their gas for - I believe it is the same wholesaler at Maplefields in Colchester as it is up in this area??

Channel 3 had a segment the other night that showed GoGo Gas on Suzy Wilson Road to be the cheapest around and on top of what you see on the sign, the owner marks it down two cents on the pump.

[khort]

Seems the Maplefields in Colchester is always several cents cheaper than surrounding areas.

[swilliam]

Drove by the Maplefield's in Colchester this morning.  Gas is now down to 3.50.9  a gallon.  Let's hope it keeps going down!

[Dick Brown]

Henry      I have heard  ( and in fact , saw it occur in St. Albans ) the same thing about the group who sets the price for the retailer , but they ( the retailers ) all charge what they think they can get from the consumers ,within their margin of profit of course ......for example , on one side of the Rt. 41 bridge going across the Peace River gas is 3.459/gallon  and on the other side ( Punta Gorda side ) it's .10 higher /gallon, coming from the same franchise ( Circle K ) . But  it is slowly , grudgingly going down . Question is how much has this six month splurge hurt our economy ??

[mirjo]

GoGo gas in Essex is always about 5 cents sometimes even as much as 10 cents cheaper than other places. I often wonder how that can be.

[Henry]

They may be similar to what Lesters used to be in St. Albans - He pretty much lead the way with Gas Prices in St. Albans and kept them down.  He always said he didn't need to much of a profit for gallon to stay in business and he sure put the other gas stations through their paces following his lead.

[Kathleen]

Word of Warning about my experience with GoGo Gas in Essex: the winter before last I was in Essex often enough that it was worth my while to fill up at GoGo which was cheaper; but a couple of times that winter my gas tank froze even on half full. Haven't been back since and haven't had a frozen gas tank. Could be just a coincidence, but you never know.

[al brodeur]

a word of caution if the gas is quite a bit cheaper ask why? a few years ago a hazards material disposal group was busted for selling some of the material thru local gas stations this was in Los Angeles but its food for thought along these lines goes the adage "buy cheap, buy twice"

[Mike Raburn]

3.77 here on Anchorage.

No one has mentioned that Obama opened the reserves and the price went up for a week, hmmmmmmmmmmm

[mirjo]

So it's Obama's fault gas is what it is? Just trying to stay up on things.

[CLach]

Went through Essex Junction this morning, the Mobil across from the McDonalds near the outlets, is advertised as 3.48 a gal...when I went to fill up the cost on the pump was actually 3.45...not sure if they made a mistake or they just didnt change their sign yet but if you around that area not a bad place to stop

[Mike Raburn]

So it's Obama's fault gas is what it is? Just trying to stay up on things.

Yup... well maybe not... who knows BUT he did open the reserves.

[gkmcnall]

$3.89 in Connecticut, $3.69 in Springfield, VT today

[David Shea]

Have you ever thought about the distributor / retail relationship with regard to petroleum products in Vermont?

Here are the major distributors that service Northern, VT

1) R.L. Vallee : St. Albans Fuel Distributor: Owner of the Maplefield's Chain of store, also owns gas & diesel pumps and or sell petroleum products at independently owned stores. ( Nan's Mobile )
 
2) Champlain Oil: South Burlington: Owners of the Jiffy Mart Chain & Champlain Farms Gas Stations at least 39 locations in VT & NY, also owns gas & diesel pumps and or sell petroleum products at independently owned stores.  ( Supply fuel and own fuel pumps at Minor's Store and Steeple Market )

3) S.B. Collin's : St. Albans, VT: Owners of Jolly Store Chain, also owns gas & diesel pumps and or sell petroleum products at independently owned stores.  Recently bought out Clarence Browns Fuels, seller of home heating, gasoline, diesel ect. 
Greg Brown was continually monitoring local fuel prices and was know to be the least expensive in St. Albans.  He also was partner in JJJ Trucking a fuel distribution company.  Buying out CBI was a big move in control and market share in local fuel prices.

These are 3 of the local fuel distribution companies that not only sell fuel at their own gas station, they also sell petroleum products to mom and pop's stores and service stations.  Since the large chain gas stations in VT are owned by the distributors and also supply the mom and pops store, plus often own the pumps and tanks, it is elementary for the distributors to control the fuel prices in our area.

Not only do the fuel distributors supply the gasoline, diesel, kerosene and incidental quart oil products, often times the distributors also own the credit processing terminals in the stores.  By owning the terminals the fuel distributors also bill for credit processing on a monthly basis.  By doing this the fuel distributors not only are able to sell petroleum products to independent stores, but also earn a percentage of gross sales on all products sold at the register that are paid for with a credit card.  ( How much cash do you carry day to day )

If I am off base I am sure that I will be corrected.  Distributors will tell us that the cost of transporting fuel from the rack in Albany to northern vermont is expensive.  I will agree that trucking is expensive, however the added cost of trucking when distributed over a 8000 gallon load is negligible in my opinion.

I am sure that prices will go up when the refiners are once again caught off guard when they have to change from the summer fuel formulation to winter fuel. 

These observations do not include distribution of bulk motor oil, home heating products or retail sales of motor oil.  This is another story all together.

[mkr]

Today Colchester Maplefield's is $3.48, Georgia Maplefield's $3.67, I was curious so stopped and checked Milton Maplefield's and they were $3.65..... all the same owners.  So yeah I got gas in Colchester.