better gasoline?

[Chevy454]

Here's what makes my head hurt...I can understand the supply/demand thing in regards to the refineries and prices, but the thing I don't understand is the way gas stations themselves play with prices. They seem to raise/lower them at will, regardless if they've gotten a new load. I live in a town of only 600 folks, and we have 3 stations in town...my front porch is literally within 100 yards of one station, and the other 2 are within an 1/8th mile...so I know exactly when they get their loads of fuel. But, their prices rise and fall each time you turn around. I get the fact that if you get a load of fuel and it costs the station *more* than the last load that the end price will have to be adjusted to reflect the same profit margin, even though they have fuel left in their tanks that they may have bought for 20 cents less...and while they're usually slower to react to getting a load of gas cheaper, the converse should be true. BUT, how/why do they get by raising the price when they're working on the same load as yesterday, or last week? Shouldn't the end price reflect the same profit margin? The speculation part of the formula should only come into play at the opposite end of the spectrum in the futures market...am I missing something?

[Daves70SS]

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Here's what makes my head hurt...I can understand the supply/demand thing in regards to the refineries and prices, but the thing I don't understand is the way gas stations themselves play with prices. They seem to raise/lower them at will, regardless if they've gotten a new load.

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I think the news media plays a big part in the rapid increase in gas prices from one day to the next. It seems that when they report on the news that there sources have reported that there will be an increase in gas prices when the hurricane hits and it could reach as high as $3 - $4 a gallon, the station owners started raising there prices the very next day.I think if the news media would have kept there mouth shut the prices wouldn't have gone up so soon and as fast as it has and maybe not as high.
Once its reported the station owners think that since the consumer is already prepared for the increase that gives them the ok to raise the prices right away.
Have you ever noticed that when the state or city government says that there going to investigate price gouging at some stations the prices start dropping. I wonder why?