Quote:
Originally posted by Mmmm, Burger (C.J.)
The oil cos. or independent wholesalers. It depends.
They know when to raise prices when they aren't selling their gasoline. ExxonMobil, for example, doesn't distribute only to ExxonMobil stations. They also sell gas to independent wholesalers, who then serve gas stations like "Gus's Gas" and "Gas4Less" and "CheapGas". Those wholesalers don't always supply Gus with ExxonMobil product. They shop around, so if Shell offers them a penny less, Exxon won't get the sale. When Exxon stops getting sales, or getting less, they cut their price.
And it's not like there's one price for gasoline. Each terminal will have a different price depending on its location and distance from the refinery. And then there are multiple grades of gasoline, not just regular/premium, but all the different formulations for environmental specs. Coordinating prices would take a huge effort of computerization, and even then the companies could cheat easily on each other with no way of knowing it was going on.
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gas is between $3.30 to $3.80/gallon. Cutting it 20 cents is within that float. No one will notice. Maybe it gets him votes but it is not going to increase fuel consumption.
so let me ask this to change the subject: if you were starting a country how would you structure the fuel refining, distribution and pricing structures?
