Having just filled up my car with gas, I'm thinking about prices, so

[MineralMan]

here's something about gas prices. Why are they so high? Well, there is the tax thing, which gives a clue as to why prices vary so much from state to state. But that's not why they are so high, overall.

They're high because the companies that produce gasoline realized that we're all expecting high prices for gasoline. Mostly due to the Ukraine invasion. But, as consumers, we have no idea how high those prices should be. So, the people at the oil companies simply test the marketplace by raising the price incrementally and see what what happens. If we keep buying, they jack wholesale prices up a little more, and then test again. Then they raise them some more, day after day and week after week.

The result is record profits for the oil companies. They like that, so they'll just keep raising prices as long as people keep gassing up their vehicles at a good pace.

It's that simple. If you want someone to blame, blame the oil companies and their profit-seeking ways. They're doing great right now, and the money is pouring in.

BTW, with my supermarket loyalty card discount at Holiday stations here in Minnesota, I paid $2.999 per gallon today.

[onecaliberal]

1. I paid 5.89 yesterday.

[MineralMan]

14. Yes, California is very high.

I have relatives there. They're all really unhappy with gas prices. The right-wingers among them blame Biden, of course. They're wrong.

[onecaliberal]

20. I blame the oil companies record profits.

They want people to blame Biden so they can continue on their planet destroying greed mission.

[MineralMan]

22. Yes, exactly.

[Walleye]

26. The oil companies know the rubes are blaming Biden.That's how they are able to get away with gouging

[inthewind21]

34. California

Has ALWAYS been high. Now it's obscene.

[underpants]

2. Great deal! Don't fill it up

Well at that price yes do but generally it’s better not to fill the tank. Okay if you are going on a long trip sure. Anyway, back to my point (and I do have one) gas weighs 6 pounds per gallon. Carrying gallons you don’t immediately need hurts mileage.

Follow me for more tips*

*with caveats

[MineralMan]

4. Typically, I fill up our cars once a month.

I'm not at all concerned with the weight of the fuel affecting my gas mileage. It's a tiny factor, and not worth even thinking about, really. One of our cars holds 12 gallons and the other has a 15-gallon capacity..

Since I only fill up once a month, the supermarket loyalty card discount, which is 5 cents a gallon for every $50 I spend at the supermarket, I can count on a good discount every time.

[Prof. Toru Tanaka]

5. Once I retire and eliminate my approximately 25 mile commute,

I'll be in the same boat. It will be nice saving a couple of hundred a month along with eliminating the commuting headache.

[MineralMan]

12. Yes. That helps. Both my wife and I have always

worked from home, anyhow, so no commute. That has saved us many thousands over the years.

[iemanja]

10. which supermarket is that for?

[MineralMan]

11. Cub supermarkets in Minnesota have an arrangement with

Holiday gas stations. Every time you spend $50 in Cub, you get five cents per gallon off your next fill-up. It's cumulative. Sometimes, I get 50 cents a gallon off and sometimes more. That's why I shop at Cub. Hi-V stores have their own gas stations and their loyalty card gives you a discount at them. I don't shop at that market, though.

[iemanja]

13. I've never gotten a Cub card

I will now.

[MineralMan]

18. Yeah. That's why I shop at Cub, frankly.

Sometimes, I go to Lunds, but their prices are higher. They do have some things I like, though, that aren't at Cub.

[iemanja]

31. I get produce at Fresh Thyme

They have good prices and decent quality.

[LizBeth]

3. Corporations across the spectrum are making record profit tells me it is not all about

inflation or wage increase.

[Freddie]

6. The problem is most of us just can't stop buying gas

So they have us by the short hairs. Back in the “old days” competing gas stations would eventually start dropping the price to steal business from the competition, but now they’re all in cahoots and that’s not going to happen. I wish there was an easy answer.

[MineralMan]

7. Drive less. That's the answer.

Carpool. Shop on a route that never backtracks. Stay home. Use whatever car you have that gets the best mileage and leave the other one parked. Take the bus. Ride your bike, scooter, or motorcycle. Walk, if possible. Order stuff online instead of shopping at multiple stores. Going out to dinner? Choose a nearby restaurant, rather than one a long way away. Order delivery meals.

Slow down and go light on the accelerator pedal. Drive like there's a raw egg under your foot. Take streets or roads with the least amount of traffic and go out in non rush-hour time periods if you can. Work from home if you can.

There are many ways to reduce costs. They're worth doing.

[Freddie]

15. I try

I combine trips into town and never go really far, and both our cars are pretty good on mileage. We intend to get an EV when one of our cars needs to be replaced. But my husband has a 45-minute commute, his job isn’t conducive to WFH and there is NO public transportation here. I shop at Giant because of the gas rewards program.
My daughter’s doing her share. She started WFH during the pandemic and has no intention of returning to the office, and so far her employer is not pushing the issue. She has groceries and takeout food delivered all the time. She uses her (really nice) car so seldom that a couple times it wouldn’t start because the battery had not charged.

[Prof. Toru Tanaka]

17. Remember when gas stations would give

a set of drinking glasses or plastic mugs with a fill-up? I remember that growing up in the late 1960s and early 70s.

[Freddie]

19. Yes

I remember when I was a little kid the Esso station down the street was giving away plush tiger tails because you “put a tiger in your tank.”

[moose65]

27. We have to buy gas, yes

But I think people are already cutting back on non-essential things like vacations or day trips.

I live in the mountains of NC. We are a vacation destination for many and a day-trip destination for many people who live "off the mountain" as we say around here. I have friends who work in restaurants who say that their business has really dropped off lately - they aren't getting as many tourists. I have also noticed that the traffic around here isn't as bad as it was last fall (Fall is a really busy time in the mountains).

I belong to a couple of National Park groups on Facebook. Several people have remarked that they've been in Yellowstone recently and the traffic is nowhere near what they expected. Of course, they have had a lot of late-spring snow this year but I don't think that's the entire story.

I've tried to cut down on extra trips, combine grocery shopping trips, etc. Luckily my daily commute is only about 20 miles.

People WILL find ways to reduce demand for gas.

[Picaro]

8. Is there no windfall profits tax on the books?

[MineralMan]

9. There is not.

[haele]

16. We just paid $5.85 in San Diego using my Star Card on base.

Regular Unleaded averages around $6.05 in town.
However, we in San Diego are still paying less per gallon than half the rest of the world, including less than many oil producing and third world countries.
Europe in general pays on average $9.00 a gallon equivalent.

It's a great time to be a commodities trader or an oil/gas company.

Haele

[MineralMan]

21. My brother-in-law lives in California.

He drives hot rods, mostly. All of them need high-octane gasoline. He complains a lot. He also has a classic Cushman scooter, so I told him he should make that his daily driver. He wasn't amused.

I make a point of telling him what I'm paying whenever I fill up here in Minnesota. That doesn't amuse him, either. But, he's a right-winger, so I don't much care whether he's amused or not.

In reality, he doesn't drive much at all. He's retired. He loves to complain, though. I stay cheerful.

[haele]

29. I'm pretty disabled right now, and spouse can't drive so we get grocery deliveries.

I always make sure I tip extra because I know they're having to gas up daily, even though most deliveries are pretty local.
We typically order deliveries twice a week.
My minimum is $7 if they're just picking up curbside and $12 if I'm going through a shopper/delivery service like Shipit. It's expensive, but until I can drive without being in agony and shop without a trying to manage a wheel chair in and out of our Honda Fit as well as the shopping and spouse, delivery is what we do.

We're lucky I'm still working as an engineer and have a cushion that we can use to pay for deliveries and delivery drivers. And that I can grit my teeth and drive for short distances on occasion if I really have to for appointments.

But I'm really concerned about those on fixed or lower incomes who are disabled or without transportation that really could or should use delivery services to bring groceries and sundries to their homes in a timely or safe manner.

Haele

[jimfields33]

23. They are high because a barrel of oil is 122 dollars (yesterday)

That is very high.

[ChoppinBroccoli]

24. Except For The Fact That When A Barrel Was $127, Gas Was About $3.80 A Gallon

It's gouging, plain and simple.

[gladium et scutum]

33. at $127.00 per barrel of crude oil

the refiner is paying $3.02 a gallon for the raw material to make gasoline, diesel, #6 fuel oil etc. The Feds and the State of VA get 52 cents a gallon. If you were paying 3.80 for a gallon of gasoline. That means the refiner, the distributor and the end point sales folks were splitting 28 cents between them. Doesn't seem like price gouging to me.

[unitedwethrive]

25. Bingo...it has always been supply and demand. With non-regulated capitalism, this is what happens.

We will pay it, so there is no reason for them to lower prices as long as they don't have a glut of supply.

[jimfields33]

28. Europe is not capitalistic but yet their prices are high as well

Even with the ton of regulations they have. Uh oh.

[MineralMan]

30. Most European countries tax gasoline highly.

That's why it costs more there. In more socialistic countries, high taxes are used to meet all sorts of needs.

See this (2021 numbers): https://taxfoundation.org/gas-taxes-in-europe/

By comparison, US gasoline taxes by states are very low:

https://igentax.com/gas-tax-state/

[unitedwethrive]

32. Even socialist countries have capitalistic industries. Any good or service that does not have

government regulation and is allowed to follow the whims of the free market is considered capitalism. I agree that gas prices have increased globally, but look at the sources of the gas and as the OP said, they are making record profits. The point is that the only way to get a handle on this is to tax or otherwise regulate the oil industry.