What makes gas stations vary in price?

Question

You can drive down a street and see one station at $2.86 and right across the street $2.35. How can the more expensive brand do this? Why would they? Why is LUKOIL always so much more expensive than DELTA, Gulf, ect..?

Answer 1

What the station chooses to make off the gallon they charge. Also where they perchase their gasoline from. Some stations add their own additives, like Techron or Shells additive V-power... so they also need to charge for that. Gas would be lots cheaper if there werent a lot of taxes and the Arabs lowered the price of the barrel.

Answer 2

I can relate to the gas price dillema. On the left side of the street I see a gas station selling gas for $2.65 we'll say and the one right across the street for $2.85 or so. One reason the gas is lower at the one station is because they can afford to do it. They know that if they lower the prices more customers will come to get their gas. The other guy across the street that's selling it 20 to 50 cents more is finding it hard to make sales from anything, so he jacks up the price to try to keep things even. The other reason could be price gauging. Granted that's probably not happening nearly as much as it did when Katrina hit the coast, but there are most likely still a few small gas stations that do it so they can stay afloat amongst the bigger stations.

Answer 3

The price is determined by the futures market. Gas stations must pay for gas as it is delivered to them and the price is set by the manufacturer of the gas. So when the price of oil in the futures go up the manufacturer of gas raises the price on the gas top be delivered to the station.

Answer 4

some top tier brands charge more because of the additives they put in, detergent etc. Profit margins are also different from station to station. Some own the space, some rent etc.

Answer 5

location, the quality of the gas and the cost of the gas when it comes to the station

Answer 6

Because the cents add up.

Answer 7

the owners