It's always struck me as bizarre that two gas stations, literally across the street from each other, can charge a different price for identical grades of gasoline. But it's maybe even more strange that, for me, I don't necessary pick the cheaper one every time. When we're talking about two cents per gallon -- or maybe 30 cents per tank -- I usually hit the station that's on my side of the street, or the one without a line at the pump.
Is that strange?
Further, there's a Clark station about a half-mile from my house, and it's always several cents cheaper than the Marathon station very close to my house. I even have a Clark credit card, so I earn another 2 percent back when I fill up at Clark. Yet I don't usually go out of my way for the cheapest gas.
Do you?
Apparently not, because I can't imagine how a competitive gas station could survive when they sell identical grade gas at a higher price than their neighbor.
Am I missing something?
I will say this: I feel like recent $4 a gallon gas prices have changed the way I drive. I try to group errands more carefully now, and even as gas prices fall back into the only semi-ludicrous zone of $2.75 per gallon, I am continuing these good habits of living a bit more locally. I also pay more attention to which car to drive on which trip -- highway driving goes to the BMW while city driving goes to the Prius. But I still barely drive the scooter, which gets 75 miles per gallon.
I guess major shifts in behavior just take time.
Andy is the president, publisher and founder of OnMilwaukee. He returned to Milwaukee in 1996 after living on the East Coast for nine years, where he wrote for The Dallas Morning News Washington Bureau and worked in the White House Office of Communications. He was also Associate Editor of The GW Hatchet, his college newspaper at The George Washington University.
Before launching OnMilwaukee.com in 1998 at age 23, he worked in public relations for two Milwaukee firms, most of the time daydreaming about starting his own publication.
Hobbies include running when he finds the time, fixing the rust on his '75 MGB, mowing the lawn at his cottage in the Northwoods, and making an annual pilgrimage to Phoenix for Brewers Spring Training.
