Gasoline Hoarding Near Downtown Detroit

**Gannon** · March-08-11, 01:25 PM

You're only thinking in static terms, Resurg.

When prices are climbing steadily, NOT due to demand [[which I've never seen proven makes any form of dent in gasoline pricing anyways!) but rather from world events that will most certainly restrict supply...

...it is WAY smarter to get what you can, while you can, at TODAY'S pricing. As long as the product is stable enough to store in the quantities you can afford to legally hold...and with gasoline there are curious storage laws that seem designed for safety but can be construed as merely keeping us at the mercy of the oil companies.

I cannot see how this does anything but move the overall demand curve forward in time a bit, and protects us against this inflation.

Most of you are not old enough to remember when gas first made that big jump in the seventies during the oil crisis...I barely am...but WAS working at a gas station in the late 70s when we had to first figure out how to put a third significant digit up on the pole when the price went over 99.9 cents per gallon!

Cheers

**fryar** · March-08-11, 02:36 PM

Might be that the Mobil stations are known to adjust their prices on Tuesdays, or something like that. If you have few resources, it might be worth your time to try to beat that deadline.

**jackie5275** · March-08-11, 03:42 PM

Originally Posted by Gannon

When prices are climbing steadily, NOT due to demand [[which I've never seen proven makes any form of dent in gasoline pricing anyways!) but rather from world events that will most certainly restrict supply...
...it is WAY smarter to get what you can, while you can, at TODAY'S pricing. As long as the product is stable enough to store in the quantities you can afford to legally hold...and with gasoline there are curious storage laws that seem designed for safety but can be construed as merely keeping us at the mercy of the oil companies.

I personally think the prices are being driven up by speculators, just as they were a few years ago when we saw $4+/gal.
Theoretically, yeah, it's smarter to buy what you can before the prices go up again, tomorrow, but as you point out storage can be a problem for the avg citizen. The largest size gas can the general public can buy is 5 gallons. The avg car fuel tank capacity is 15-20 gals. You'd have to have 3-4, 5 gallon gas cans sitting around your garage waiting to be poured. Multiply that by the number of cars you have. I have 3 vehicles with gas tanks of 17, 17, & 12 gallons respectively. This totals 46 gallons of gas. Even if I was using 5 gallon gas cans, I'd have to have 10 of them in my garage to store the 46 gallons. It's not that practical to transport from the gasoline station or to store.

**Jimaz** · March-08-11, 07:32 PM

Originally Posted by Gannon

I ... WAS working at a gas station in the late 70s when we had to first figure out how to put a third significant digit up on the pole when the price went over 99.9 cents per gallon!

Not to mention that same problem with the pump displays themselves. They used to have two mechanical wheels, one per digit. There was no third wheel!

Sounds like a case for scientific notation!

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