How to Gouge 101

Have you noticed the price of a gallon of gasoline (Hi OBX!) down at Jim’s lately?  As I understand it, a new shipment of gas came on last night (early Tuesday morning) and lo and behold, a gallon costs $2.919 a gallon.  (Don’t forget that $.009!)  I’m befuddled as to how Hurricane Katrina can mysteriously cause a tanker full of unleaded to increase in price thirty cents a gallon WHILE DRIVING DOWN THE ROAD. 

This is oil that was drilled from the ground, shipped from wherever, refined into gasoline, and was being shipped to Windham before Katrina made landfall.  For the price to climb like that with no cause but for to guess that it will be scarce in the next couple of weeks is pure speculation, and a cause to call it gouging.  Its a world different from a country full of SUV drivers filling up the 12 mpg vehicles and complaining because gas is three cents more than yesterday. 

Don’t blame this on Jim’s though, its likely that the store is only taking about 8–10 cents a gallon from the total cost.  The cause for the high price likely goes to the supplier.  Poor Jim’s, though, looked like a ghost town today.