Gas Prices.

[Slider]

Again we are getting ripped off big time in the Okanagan. Specifically in Kelowna and Winfield. There is no reason we are paying what we are. Look at Vernon, their prices are still at $108/l. I take a couple of gas cans and go to Vernon to fill up. If everyone shopped around and bought gas where its cheaper we would see more gas wars. Do yourself a favor, tell the gas station attendant or better yet ask to see the manager or owner and ask them what the reason is for them ripping us off. Im sure they will give some BS reason but its obvious to see it greed and nothing more. You can't tell me there is any other reason than greed. Vernon gets their gas from the same refinery as we do. People stop being complacent!!!!

Spend $8.00 on gas to drive from Kelowna (assuming that's where you're from?) to Vernon and back to safe $9.75 on 75L of fuel, wasting a couple of hours of your time plus the wear and tear on your vehicle, now that's showing it to the (gas) man!

Assumption is the mother of all screw ups. I live in Winfield not Kelowna. I take at least 2 5 gallon gas cans with me and buy way more than 75l if fuel so my savings are well worth the trip. As for wear and tear on my vehicle, that is minimal. You put far more wear and tear going from traffic light to traffic light as you do in Kelowna. Also I do not buy anything from the gas station store which most of them have to supplement their income. My point is which went over some of the heads in here is if they don't sell much they might start getting the idea to get back into a gas war which seems to be few and far between these days. Gas station owners love people like you who don't take any action and keep buying their over inflated priced gas.

[Tony]

Just did a trip through to Cranbrook and back... $1.19 pretty much everywhere in both East and West Kootenays. It is what it is. No way to change the price. If you don't like it, ride a bike, the bus, or walk. Unfortunately it's a necessary evil. The price of food goes up on a regular basis too.

[mexi cali]

Actually the base price is set by the regional manager, then the retailer jacks it by another few cents per liter. This is what happens here.

In the case of station operated by retailers which is most, the retailer DOES NOT set the price. They are told what to set it at. They receive a small commission on the sale of fuel which never fluctuates based on price. They make their money on the store sold product that you don't buy inorder to show big oil that you mean business.

I work everyday with these people and I can tell you that gas sales represents almost nil to them.

There is more to the relationship between the oil company and the retailer but in a nutshell, the only people affected by you not patronizing the retail store is them. So good on yah buddy. Keep up the protest.

[RVThereYet]

Again we are getting ripped off big time in the Okanagan. Specifically in Kelowna and Winfield. There is no reason we are paying what we are. Look at Vernon, their prices are still at $108/l. I take a couple of gas cans and go to Vernon to fill up. If everyone shopped around and bought gas where its cheaper we would see more gas wars. Do yourself a favor, tell the gas station attendant or better yet ask to see the manager or owner and ask them what the reason is for them ripping us off. Im sure they will give some BS reason but its obvious to see it greed and nothing more. You can't tell me there is any other reason than greed. Vernon gets their gas from the same refinery as we do. People stop being complacent!!!!

Spend $8.00 on gas to drive from Kelowna (assuming that's where you're from?) to Vernon and back to safe $9.75 on 75L of fuel, wasting a couple of hours of your time plus the wear and tear on your vehicle, now that's showing it to the (gas)

Slider wrote: Assumption is the mother of all screw ups. I live in Winfield not Kelowna. I take at least 2 5 gallon gas cans with me and buy way more than 75l if fuel so my savings are well worth the trip. As for wear and tear on my vehicle, that is minimal. You put far more wear and tear going from traffic light to traffic light as you do in Kelowna. Also I do not buy anything from the gas station store which most of them have to supplement their income. My point is which went over some of the heads in here is if they don't sell much they might start getting the idea to get back into a gas war which seems to be few and far between these days. Gas station owners love people like you who don't take any action and keep buying their over inflated priced gas.

You're right, "Assumption is the mother of all screw ups"... I don't live in Kelowna either, may well even be a neighbour of yours out here in Winfield, though I doubt it and wouldn't want to make any assumptions about that either ;-). Point is/was, which seems to go over a lot of people's heads, that many step over a dollar to save a penny when it comes to saving a couple of bucks on a fill up, like drive around for 10 minutes to find a station that is selling at a fraction of a penny less than the one across the street. I too go to Vernon to take advantage of the Safeway gas coupons when I have them, but would never make a special trip for it, with, or without jerry-cans. My time it takes to do that, even just driving back and forth from Winfield, is far more valuable if spent doing other things, even if the trip was to save me $20, or even $30 bucks on gas.

[slootman]

Its funny how out of sorts people get over gas prices, but other than complain few are really willing to do much to reduce their gas costs.

Example: How many take advantage of the stations in town that offer once per week discount from the posted rate? I'm guessing very few.

Another example: Car pooling. Split a trip with one other person cuts gas costs per person in half. To how many is this worth it? I'm guessing very few.

Or as others have suggested, ride a bike or walk sometimes. How many are willing to do that? Yeah, thought so.

When people aren't willing to change their gas use habits there's no reason for companies to adjust prices. Some people are just whiners...

[GordonH]

Rack price for last month March 05 to Apr 05 (just weekdays) out of the Kamloops terminal:

[Slider]

Spend $8.00 on gas to drive from Kelowna (assuming that's where you're from?) to Vernon and back to safe $9.75 on 75L of fuel, wasting a couple of hours of your time plus the wear and tear on your vehicle, now that's showing it to the (gas) man!

I track my cars fuel usage and it would cost me closer to $15 for a round trip. No savings there!

Wow, thats not very good mileage from Lake Country. I buy about 120L so it pays for me. Even if you break even it would help send a message. Problem is nobody cares so they just keep doing it. Why else would Vernon still be charging 108/L?

[Slider]

Rack price for last month March 05 to Apr 05 (just weekdays) out of the Kamloops terminal:

Rack price from Mar 05 to Apr 05.png

I would say they make some profit.

[GordonH]

Rack price for last month March 05 to Apr 05 (just weekdays) out of the Kamloops terminal:

I would say they make some profit.

You got remember to added taxes .3517 (GST included)

[Jonrox]

I continue to find it interesting how everyone gets so upset over gas prices and all of a sudden becomes an expert in economics in its pricing. They'll complain about oil companies making a few cents per litre, but have no problem paying markups as high as 300% on clothing, 1000% on eyeglasses, and 500% on shoes (to give a few examples).

An iPhone costs about $250 to make and Apple sells them for $700 and higher. Yet you guys pay it willingly.

It's kind of entertaining how clueless and hypocritical a lot of you are. Oil companies are getting criticized for making a profit on their items, while you give everyone else a free pass to make way higher margins on theirs.

[Urban Cowboy]

You left out ink and toner cartridges, which are about the biggest ripoff on the planet.

Where I do see a difference however is that in all honesty fuel could be classified as a necessity, while many of the other items either are not, or at least people can allow for the ridiculous prices by limiting their purchases, or purchasing a less expensive alternative.

Sure a store might charge $500 for a pair of shoes, but there's two scenarios that will often accompany that example, one being the buyer would not be buying shoes like that again for a decade, or the other, they simply won't buy them in the first place, going instead with a $50 pair of shoes at a discount outlet, so the seller is severely limiting his market opportunities.

In the case of fuel they have us by the short hairs so to speak. I don't have the option of saying, no, I won't drive into town for work today, and since I carry a lot of tools and spare parts with me, public transportation is not an option, so I have no choice but to pay whatever the price at the pump is.

The oil companies know this and exploit it to the max. Why else would the prices significantly bounce up and down for no reason beyond greed? The US drops a couple of missiles on an airstrip in Syria and instantly we're warned that prices will be going up a lot, when that air strike in reality had zero to do with fuel, particularly in our case where we have our own fuel resources. The very same tactics oil giants engage in as normal day to day, would be grounds for prosecution were it practically any other business.

Even more irritating is seeing the jerks raise the price at the pumps instantly when they feel they have a good excuse, but when something happens that causes a drop in prices, they take their sweet time changing them at the pump, and use the tired old "well it takes a while for the fuel to work it's way through the system" before the change can be applied.

Funny how that only works in cases where the price is coming down. You can't convince me that two gas stations sitting across the street from each other, one that had its tanks fully filled the day prior, and one with empty tanks about to be filled in an hour or so, have just cause to jack up their price by fifteen cents a liter within seconds of each other.

By rights the one whose tanks are full should require at least four or five days before they'd be receiving any fuel at the higher price, and even that is questionable because the refinery would already have millions of liters of fuel in stock at the old price.


This is what ticks consumers off the most, because let's face it, when it comes to that $500 pair of shoes, they'll sit there for quite some time, consistent at that price, same with iphone, and if we don't like it we can buy something less expensive. We don't get that option with fuel.

That whole industry is driven by collusion, plain and simple.

[RVThereYet]

I continue to find it interesting how everyone gets so upset over gas prices and all of a sudden becomes an expert in economics in its pricing. They'll complain about oil companies making a few cents per litre, but have no problem paying markups as high as 300% on clothing, 1000% on eyeglasses, and 500% on shoes (to give a few examples).

An iPhone costs about $250 to make and Apple sells them for $700 and higher. Yet you guys pay it willingly.

It's kind of entertaining how clueless and hypocritical a lot of you are. Oil companies are getting criticized for making a profit on their items, while you give everyone else a free pass to make way higher margins on theirs.

Furniture, jewellery, electronics (see I-phone) all have massive (in some cases 1000%+) mark-ups... Everything you look at in a store today has huge mark-ups. Just stop for a moment and think about it the next time you're at a Canadian Tire, Wal-Mart or London Drugs etc., and ask yourself what you think it really cost the retailer to get that particular item you're looking at buying onto their shelve in front of you... it absolutely boggles the mind. There are items that have a "landed cost" of around $1 that are being sold for $20 or more. And we pay it, because we either need it or want it or both. Then think of the scale of those economics, how many millions of those "trinkets" are being sold in Canada, North America, the World etc., it ads up to billions upon billions in profits. And should one of those retailers raise the price on that "trinket" from say $17.49 to $18.79, we'd hardly notice, if at all, and we'd just pay it and go on with our lives.

But now, if that gas station raises their price by $0.05 cents/litre we scream bloody murder, call them rip-off artists that are gouging us in the name of profit, and to hell with them all, I'm driving to Vernon to buy my gas now because its $0.10 cents cheaper up there.

Don't get me wrong, it irks me too when gas prices go up seemingly out of nowhere, for no reason other than "just because", and, I will fill up my truck on the Wednesday before the summer long weekend if I'm under less than 1/2 a tank left to avoid that (predictable) increase that always comes on the Thursday before a long weekend, but I won't drive around for 10 minutes looking for that station that is selling at a few pennies less than the one across the street or up to Vernon for that matter to save a few bucks on a tank. like I said in my earlier post, that's "stepping over dollars to save pennies".

And what makes me laugh is, those people that drive around to look for marginally cheaper gas, right after they fill up, they walk into in the convenience store and buy a 500 ml bottle of water for $1.49 without batting an eye, paying $3.00/litre for something they could get for free at the water fountain...

[Jonrox]

When you buy a $50 or $100 pair of shoes, you're still paying a 500% markup. I would venture of the things I listed, people would consider eyeglasses, clothing, and shoes all necessities yet they still have no problem paying very high markup on them.

Only gas makes people outraged and instantly turns them into experts with economics degrees (even though they virtually all get the economics wrong).

Here's the lesson folks... and I've said it countless times on these forums: pricing has nothing to do with costs. The market determines the price of goods. The market doesn't care what a company's costs are. You don't know the costs of most things you buy, yet you still buy them. Yet somehow you think gas should be different. It's ridiculous.

[Urban Cowboy]

When you buy a $50 or $100 pair of shoes, you're still paying a 500% markup. I would venture of the things I listed, people would consider eyeglasses, clothing, and shoes all necessities yet they still have no problem paying very high markup on them.

Only gas makes people outraged and instantly turns them into experts with economics degrees (even though they virtually all get the economics wrong).

Here's the lesson folks... and I've said it countless times on these forums: pricing has nothing to do with costs. The market determines the price of goods. The market doesn't care what a company's costs are. You don't know the costs of most things you buy, yet you still buy them. Yet somehow you think gas should be different. It's ridiculous.

I can't help but feel you're missing my point here.

Are you going to tell me that those shoes are the exact same price in every store in town?

Same with eyeglasses? People get the choice to shop around for the other items, and they will find price variations.

In the case of fuel, not so much. That's called collusion.

If you doubt that, so be it, but I had a partner some years back, whose very job it was to call all the stations, including the competition, to inform them the price was going up.

I don't have an issue with the market dictating prices, but I do with market manipulation.

Would you feel the same as you do here, if it were insider trading on the stock market instead? It's basically the same thing.

[phasyluck]

Simple solution....lets all buy Teslas!!!