It's pretty bad when...

Your price of gas is affected by "pump rage".


http://www.mcall.com/news/local/all-...l_tab01_layout

themorningcall.com
Wawa: Gas war ends at midnight

By Kirk Beldon Jackson

11:29 PM EDT, July 23, 2007

Wawa called a truce in the gasoline price war out of concern about traffic safety Monday, a day when cars spilled into the street for at least a block from its Union Boulevard and Airport Road store in Allentown and from the rival Hess station across the intersection.

The war raged out of control after Wawa and Hess dropped the price of regular gas to $1.94 a gallon, 98 cents less than the Pennsylvania average and $1.23 less than the highest price in the Lehigh Valley area. As of midnight, Wawa was to return to regular market pricing.

"Would you have your moms out here in this madness?" Darrel Smith of Allentown said moments after he pumped gas into his mother's car at the Airport Road Wawa amid lines of drivers, many of whom had waited at least 15 minutes.

Smith, who recalled seeing a heated argument that almost came to blows at the station recently, said he was concerned about his mother's safety with belligerent people jockeying for the pumps.

But Juan Cueto of Allentown had no problem with the congestion.

"I want to keep the price like it is," Cueto said as he waited in line to buy gas at the Airport Road Hess station. "It's better now. Before, it was too expensive."

Wawa, based in Wawa, Delaware County, described the Lehigh Valley as "ground zero for a gas price war" in a prepared statement and explained why the company wanted a cease-fire.

"We feel that we are doing the right thing," said Wawa spokeswoman Lori Bruce. "At this point, because of concerns over safety and the congestion in and around the lots, we decided to bring the price war to an end."

Copyright © 2007, The Morning Call

"Wawa, based in Wawa, Delaware County"

huh?

Wawa is down near Philly in Delaware County. There is also a Wawa up in Ontario I discovered when I google'd it.

nuts, don't get it confused with blah, blah georgia.


gas under 2 per gallon? 3.08 a gallon today for me :)

Yep.. prices have been crazy. Usually, NJ is .10 - .15 a gallon cheaper, but lately PA has been about $.30 cheaper per gallon and then almost $.90 cheaper with the WaWa - Hess price battles. Sheetz got in on it too. They had police out directing traffic in and out of the parking lots at Hess on at least two different occasions. Across the street, a Mobile and a Shell and both were completely empty at about $.80 higher per gallon. I stopped at the Mobile and bought a Coke Zero and asked the girl at the cash register... Not much for you to do is there? She said.. "Outside of the occasional customer who stops into the convenient store to avoid the other parking lots - not much we can do."

I wish I knew the "story" behind the $1.92 per gallon gas prices and their economic rationale behind it. I understand loss leaders... but that is pretty drastic in any market.