Slowly slipping downward. Drop the price for a gallon of Regular another dollar or two and it will almost be reasonable.
Coming soon: More ranting about how people are acting now that Spring has finally kicked into gear here....
Sunday, April 22, 2012
Thursday, April 19, 2012
Friday, April 13, 2012
What's the $4.11?
Hey, gas prices at our little store CAME DOWN slightly on Thursday night, down 4 cents per gallon to $4.11 for Regular.
And I keep hearing from customers that prices are supposed to be dropping FURTHER. Supposedly the oil-barrel price has been dropping for awhile.... Haven't heard anything about this from my boss, who doesn't talk about it. Or about much of anything else. A really nice guy, but a little quiet....
Have heard rumors about gas prices in our area as high as $4.29 for a gallon of Regular ... which is fairly outrageous. Have also heard of gas prices already topping $5 per gallon in California and Florida.
We are still nowhere near our record price of $4.59 for a gallon of Regular, which was the peak price during that wretched Summer of 2008.
And how outrageous are gas prices in your neck of the woods...?
And I keep hearing from customers that prices are supposed to be dropping FURTHER. Supposedly the oil-barrel price has been dropping for awhile.... Haven't heard anything about this from my boss, who doesn't talk about it. Or about much of anything else. A really nice guy, but a little quiet....
Have heard rumors about gas prices in our area as high as $4.29 for a gallon of Regular ... which is fairly outrageous. Have also heard of gas prices already topping $5 per gallon in California and Florida.
We are still nowhere near our record price of $4.59 for a gallon of Regular, which was the peak price during that wretched Summer of 2008.
And how outrageous are gas prices in your neck of the woods...?
Sunday, March 25, 2012
$4.15!
My roommate came home with some great news on Friday.
"Gas prices are gonna go down!" he said.
Oh really? Why's that?
"Obama just signed that Keystone Pipeline thing."
So?
"That means gas prices are gonna start goin' down! Just watch!"
All the oil that runs through that pipeline -- if it gets built in three to five years -- is heading for China. We'll benefit from the 180,000 jobs to build it, and the oil's supposed to be refined in Texas, but it's all meant for China. That's why the Canadians were talking about routing the pipeline over the Rockies to Vancouver, B.C., if Obama decided to veto the pipeline -- it's all meant to be exported to China.
"Oh. OK. But gas prices are gonna go down, just watch!"
How are gas prices gonna go down?
"Obama's gonna take care of it!"
How? Oil's an internationally traded commodity. You can't control the price. It's all based on supply and demand and speculation. Obama can't control it, nobody can. And how's Obama gonna control it when Exxon/Mobil's making $10 billion every three months? You have CNN on the TV 24/7, don't you remember ANYTHING they say?
"Obama's gonna take care of it, you'll see."
Uh huh.
Saturday morning our price for a gallon of Regular went up another 6 cents, to $4.15. I hope my roommate sees that price sign and chokes.
Our price is now 16 cents higher per gallon than our competition across the street. And people are getting cranky. I've been yelled at twice in the last week just because folks had to come inside the station to get a receipt for their gas. Such inconvenience! How dare we!
And how are things in your little world? Not as expensive, I hope....
"Gas prices are gonna go down!" he said.
Oh really? Why's that?
"Obama just signed that Keystone Pipeline thing."
So?
"That means gas prices are gonna start goin' down! Just watch!"
All the oil that runs through that pipeline -- if it gets built in three to five years -- is heading for China. We'll benefit from the 180,000 jobs to build it, and the oil's supposed to be refined in Texas, but it's all meant for China. That's why the Canadians were talking about routing the pipeline over the Rockies to Vancouver, B.C., if Obama decided to veto the pipeline -- it's all meant to be exported to China.
"Oh. OK. But gas prices are gonna go down, just watch!"
How are gas prices gonna go down?
"Obama's gonna take care of it!"
How? Oil's an internationally traded commodity. You can't control the price. It's all based on supply and demand and speculation. Obama can't control it, nobody can. And how's Obama gonna control it when Exxon/Mobil's making $10 billion every three months? You have CNN on the TV 24/7, don't you remember ANYTHING they say?
"Obama's gonna take care of it, you'll see."
Uh huh.
Saturday morning our price for a gallon of Regular went up another 6 cents, to $4.15. I hope my roommate sees that price sign and chokes.
Our price is now 16 cents higher per gallon than our competition across the street. And people are getting cranky. I've been yelled at twice in the last week just because folks had to come inside the station to get a receipt for their gas. Such inconvenience! How dare we!
And how are things in your little world? Not as expensive, I hope....
Sunday, March 18, 2012
She's real fine my $4.09!
Or, just when you thought it was safe to buy gas.....
After holding at $3.99 for two weeks, on Saturday morning our price for a gallon of Regular rose to $4.09. This after we thought maybe gas prices had stalled or maybe were even going to DROP. We're already higher than our peak price last year -- which was $4.05.
Which just goes to show that RUMORS about gas prices don't matter. The only sure thing is the price that gets posted out front for all our customers to see.
And although I applaud Management for holding at $3.99 since the end of February, I was surprised that the jump over $4 came in a 10-cent-per-gallon leap all at once.... Our price is also 16 cents per gallon higher than our competition across the street.
Other than that, Saturday was good -- lots of people out partying for the St. Patrick's Day holiday, but everybody seemed to be in a really good mood, no drunken craziness, and my choice of fairly-loud rock and roll on the store stereo possibly helped....
I have a feeling there will be more posts coming soon.....
Heard any good politicians' promises to cut gas prices lately? Pretty hilarious, huh?
After holding at $3.99 for two weeks, on Saturday morning our price for a gallon of Regular rose to $4.09. This after we thought maybe gas prices had stalled or maybe were even going to DROP. We're already higher than our peak price last year -- which was $4.05.
Which just goes to show that RUMORS about gas prices don't matter. The only sure thing is the price that gets posted out front for all our customers to see.
And although I applaud Management for holding at $3.99 since the end of February, I was surprised that the jump over $4 came in a 10-cent-per-gallon leap all at once.... Our price is also 16 cents per gallon higher than our competition across the street.
Other than that, Saturday was good -- lots of people out partying for the St. Patrick's Day holiday, but everybody seemed to be in a really good mood, no drunken craziness, and my choice of fairly-loud rock and roll on the store stereo possibly helped....
I have a feeling there will be more posts coming soon.....
Heard any good politicians' promises to cut gas prices lately? Pretty hilarious, huh?
Monday, February 27, 2012
$3.99!
I hear from my roommate -- who was at the station on Monday morning -- that our price for a gallon of Regular gas went up another 4 cents overnight, to $3.99. This means our price has gone up 44 cents per gallon in the last two weeks.
Now we're knocking on the door to $4 per gallon. Close enough that it doesn't matter, really. We are the odds-on favorite to be the first station in town (that I know of) with $4-per-gallon gas. Great times!
However, this is my weekend, so I don't have to worry about this crap right now.
More soon!
Now we're knocking on the door to $4 per gallon. Close enough that it doesn't matter, really. We are the odds-on favorite to be the first station in town (that I know of) with $4-per-gallon gas. Great times!
However, this is my weekend, so I don't have to worry about this crap right now.
More soon!
Saturday, February 25, 2012
$3.95!
...is our store's price for a gallon of Regular gas as of Friday afternoon. Our price has gone up 40 CENTS IN 10 DAYS! Our high-octane Supreme gas is now at $4.19 per gallon.
The last time we went through this (2008), the employees took bets on which gas station in town would be the first to raise their price over $4 per gallon for Regular. This time around, I think it might be US....
This has not been a good week in my neck of the woods. In the local area over the last three days we've had one state trooper shot to death by a guy who later killed himself; in the same area as that incident but a day later, a car full of people was speeding down the highway too fast, left the road and ended up in the bay -- one of the passengers drowned; and in Bremerton, just 5 miles up the road from us, earlier this week a third-grader accidentally shot one of his classmates with a loaded gun he said he brought to school from his mother's house.
It's been nothing but fun here in Fun City, the Gun Capital of the Known World.
I blame some of this stuff on the pace of life here. I've never been ANYWHERE else where the pace seems SO FAST 24/7, where almost EVERYBODY ALWAYS seems to be in a hurry. And I've lived in California a couple of times.
If I could make people slow down a step or two, I would. But they won't.
It's like people want this to be Seattle -- it's not. We're not even a suburb. But people keep racing around like there's no tomorrow, EVERY DAY. Something about living here seems to MAKE PEOPLE CRAZY. People who aren't FROM HERE see it -- this stuff ain't normal. But folks who were born and raised here think this IS Reality. They're wrong.
Now more than ever I am hyper-sensitive about Not Pissing People Off. I don't want them coming back with a gun just because we had a little disagreement.
I've been telling customers on their way out of the store to "Be careful out there" for a long time now. Only now I mean it. For God's sake, take it easy and keep your head down.
Meanwhile, I'm hoping a happy worker, a kind word, a friendly voice, lots of bad jokes, or some good tunes on the store stereo will turn aside all wrath.
Because that's about all I've got to rely on.
That and The Panic Button. And a couple of baseball bats hidden behind the counter.
Check out my other blog, TAD's Back-Up Plan, to see how the right music keeps me happy and be-bopping through the evenings, and hopefully keeps the customers happy too.
More soon....
The last time we went through this (2008), the employees took bets on which gas station in town would be the first to raise their price over $4 per gallon for Regular. This time around, I think it might be US....
This has not been a good week in my neck of the woods. In the local area over the last three days we've had one state trooper shot to death by a guy who later killed himself; in the same area as that incident but a day later, a car full of people was speeding down the highway too fast, left the road and ended up in the bay -- one of the passengers drowned; and in Bremerton, just 5 miles up the road from us, earlier this week a third-grader accidentally shot one of his classmates with a loaded gun he said he brought to school from his mother's house.
It's been nothing but fun here in Fun City, the Gun Capital of the Known World.
I blame some of this stuff on the pace of life here. I've never been ANYWHERE else where the pace seems SO FAST 24/7, where almost EVERYBODY ALWAYS seems to be in a hurry. And I've lived in California a couple of times.
If I could make people slow down a step or two, I would. But they won't.
It's like people want this to be Seattle -- it's not. We're not even a suburb. But people keep racing around like there's no tomorrow, EVERY DAY. Something about living here seems to MAKE PEOPLE CRAZY. People who aren't FROM HERE see it -- this stuff ain't normal. But folks who were born and raised here think this IS Reality. They're wrong.
Now more than ever I am hyper-sensitive about Not Pissing People Off. I don't want them coming back with a gun just because we had a little disagreement.
I've been telling customers on their way out of the store to "Be careful out there" for a long time now. Only now I mean it. For God's sake, take it easy and keep your head down.
Meanwhile, I'm hoping a happy worker, a kind word, a friendly voice, lots of bad jokes, or some good tunes on the store stereo will turn aside all wrath.
Because that's about all I've got to rely on.
That and The Panic Button. And a couple of baseball bats hidden behind the counter.
Check out my other blog, TAD's Back-Up Plan, to see how the right music keeps me happy and be-bopping through the evenings, and hopefully keeps the customers happy too.
More soon....
Thursday, February 23, 2012
$3.89!
...is our new price for a gallon of Regular gas, as of 5 p.m. Wednesday afternoon. Our price has gone up 34 CENTS IN A WEEK! Our premium high-octane gas is now $4.09 per gallon!
A fire last week at a local refinery (I think it was in Tacoma, though I'm not positive) is expected to make things worse -- the local media has predicted gas prices may jump 20 to 30 cents per gallon ON TOP OF whatever other price-hike gets handed down to us.
And as long as the Middle East stays volatile, prices will continue to go up. Syria's looking real ugly -- that'll be worth a few more cents per gallon. We might have to bomb Iran to keep them from developing nukes? -- That should be worth at least a dime. Any excuse is good enough, really. You know Exxon/Mobil made another $10 billion last year, right...?
In the meantime, The Gas Nazi had one of his best Wednesday nights lately. The store wasn't a shambles when he got to work and it looked like maybe some of his co-workers might have actually done some work during his two days off. At no point on Wednesday night did he get all jumpy and panicky and overcome by stress and work.
There were a couple of minor incidents -- one guy rushed The Nazi for change from his $100 on a $5 purchase, and a Drunk Regular wanted an argument. Other than that, the best Wednesday night in weeks. Most recent Wednesday nights have pretty much been a Living Hell from start to finish. Things might be looking up. Maybe somebody at work heard about my bitching. Or maybe some of my co-workers are reading this blog...? Hmmm....
More coming soon, whenever gas prices go up again. At this pace, we'll hit $5 per gallon for Regular before the end of March....
Should be a Real Fun Summer....
A fire last week at a local refinery (I think it was in Tacoma, though I'm not positive) is expected to make things worse -- the local media has predicted gas prices may jump 20 to 30 cents per gallon ON TOP OF whatever other price-hike gets handed down to us.
And as long as the Middle East stays volatile, prices will continue to go up. Syria's looking real ugly -- that'll be worth a few more cents per gallon. We might have to bomb Iran to keep them from developing nukes? -- That should be worth at least a dime. Any excuse is good enough, really. You know Exxon/Mobil made another $10 billion last year, right...?
In the meantime, The Gas Nazi had one of his best Wednesday nights lately. The store wasn't a shambles when he got to work and it looked like maybe some of his co-workers might have actually done some work during his two days off. At no point on Wednesday night did he get all jumpy and panicky and overcome by stress and work.
There were a couple of minor incidents -- one guy rushed The Nazi for change from his $100 on a $5 purchase, and a Drunk Regular wanted an argument. Other than that, the best Wednesday night in weeks. Most recent Wednesday nights have pretty much been a Living Hell from start to finish. Things might be looking up. Maybe somebody at work heard about my bitching. Or maybe some of my co-workers are reading this blog...? Hmmm....
More coming soon, whenever gas prices go up again. At this pace, we'll hit $5 per gallon for Regular before the end of March....
Should be a Real Fun Summer....
Saturday, February 18, 2012
$3.75!
...is our price for a gallon of Regular gas as of 11 p.m. Friday night. We've gone up 20 cents in three days. I don't get it. At this pace, we'll reach $5 per gallon before the end of March....
Our price was already 23 cents more per gallon than our competitors across the street as of Friday afternoon....
Hope prices are cheaper wherever YOU live. This is not going to do the economy any good.... It's not gonna do our store any good, either. At least there haven't been too many complaints yet. And nobody has started screaming, so far. But it's early yet....
Our price was already 23 cents more per gallon than our competitors across the street as of Friday afternoon....
Hope prices are cheaper wherever YOU live. This is not going to do the economy any good.... It's not gonna do our store any good, either. At least there haven't been too many complaints yet. And nobody has started screaming, so far. But it's early yet....
Friday, February 17, 2012
Currently $3.69!
See the news media is already predicting $5 for a gallon of gas by summertime.
Yeah, probably. But they predicted $5-per-gallon gas last year at this time too, and we never even got close. Never topped $4.05.
But here's the thing: Our price for a gallon of Regular went up 14 CENTS on WEDNESDAY. So it's already starting. We were at $3.55 Wednesday morning, and the boss jumped it a dime. Then he hiked it another 4 cents at 9 p.m. that night. All that to cover the cost from his supplier.
So, it's gonna be another long hot summer, just like 2008. But I don't wanna hear any bitching and screaming until a gallon of Regular tops $4.59 -- the previous record. Then everything's fair game.
If we have another ugly screaming blur of a summer like 2008, I plan to slash my wrists.
In the meantime, I'm feeling overworked and underappreciated at my little station. I feel like hardly anyone else does SHIT during my 2 days off every week. They all leave it for me instead, because they know I'll make them look good when I come back.
Which means my Monday (Wednesday to you) is my worst work night of the week -- because I walk into work, see what a freaking shambles it is, see how much stuff needs to be done -- and then I run around like a maniac for the rest of the night.
And my co-workers wonder why I get angry and upset and freak out? Because there's no evidence anybody else does anything.
My co-workers don't notice what I do, but they sure as hell notice when I DON'T do it.
My boss says we all work hard and she will hear no complaints about overwork.
My feeling is the people who work the morning and afternoon shifts have a LOT of time to talk, even though it also sometimes gets screaming busy during those shifts.
All I know is my co-workers love me so much they save up all the stuff they don't want to do and leave it for me on my Monday. Isn't that special?
One asshole tonight lectured me on how I oughta feel lucky just to HAVE a job, and I agree with that. But how happy did he expect me to be? There's no way to win. If I'm too happy, people think there's something wrong with me. If I'm not happy enough, people bitch about THAT.
The only solution is to turn up the music and hold tight on the corners. And fuck everyone if they don't like it.
Hope this post has helped fill your world with sweetness and light. The same way my world is filled with it right now.
More soon. And I plan to post updates every time our gas price goes up. Should be a fun summer....
Yeah, probably. But they predicted $5-per-gallon gas last year at this time too, and we never even got close. Never topped $4.05.
But here's the thing: Our price for a gallon of Regular went up 14 CENTS on WEDNESDAY. So it's already starting. We were at $3.55 Wednesday morning, and the boss jumped it a dime. Then he hiked it another 4 cents at 9 p.m. that night. All that to cover the cost from his supplier.
So, it's gonna be another long hot summer, just like 2008. But I don't wanna hear any bitching and screaming until a gallon of Regular tops $4.59 -- the previous record. Then everything's fair game.
If we have another ugly screaming blur of a summer like 2008, I plan to slash my wrists.
In the meantime, I'm feeling overworked and underappreciated at my little station. I feel like hardly anyone else does SHIT during my 2 days off every week. They all leave it for me instead, because they know I'll make them look good when I come back.
Which means my Monday (Wednesday to you) is my worst work night of the week -- because I walk into work, see what a freaking shambles it is, see how much stuff needs to be done -- and then I run around like a maniac for the rest of the night.
And my co-workers wonder why I get angry and upset and freak out? Because there's no evidence anybody else does anything.
My co-workers don't notice what I do, but they sure as hell notice when I DON'T do it.
My boss says we all work hard and she will hear no complaints about overwork.
My feeling is the people who work the morning and afternoon shifts have a LOT of time to talk, even though it also sometimes gets screaming busy during those shifts.
All I know is my co-workers love me so much they save up all the stuff they don't want to do and leave it for me on my Monday. Isn't that special?
One asshole tonight lectured me on how I oughta feel lucky just to HAVE a job, and I agree with that. But how happy did he expect me to be? There's no way to win. If I'm too happy, people think there's something wrong with me. If I'm not happy enough, people bitch about THAT.
The only solution is to turn up the music and hold tight on the corners. And fuck everyone if they don't like it.
Hope this post has helped fill your world with sweetness and light. The same way my world is filled with it right now.
More soon. And I plan to post updates every time our gas price goes up. Should be a fun summer....
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