Here’s how it all goes down.
Well-dressed fatcats sit around a dark, mahogany table in the boardroom of a nondescript highrise deep in a dense metropolis on the coast of an exotic country. Anonymous and alone, they sip scotch, share pictures of new yachts, and make plans to jack gas prices for the long weekend.
Cuff links clinking on crystal glasses, celebratory cigar smoke filling the room, the gas execs laugh deep belly laughs, high-ten each other, and then file into limos to take them back to the airport. And of course, just before they leave, everyone does a shot of high-octane gasoline to keep the memory fresh and the evil juices flowing.
At least that’s how I imagine it.
After all, gas prices bob up and down and up and down and seemingly rise up whenever you cruise up to fill up for the weekend. We all know it’s a constant game and a constant battle.
But that’s why there’s something fun about watching those prices drip and drop ever so slowly throughout the week and then pulling in to fill your tank just before they zoom sky-high again.
Honestly, when you nail it just right you walk away laughing, patting the extra three dollars in your pocket and daydreaming of how you might spend it this time. Lottery ticket, windshield washer fluid, maybe some beef jerky for the ride home. Either way, you’ll be sitting pretty when you cruise by the station on a full tank tomorrow and notice the prices are hiked back up.
Bottom line, man: you came out to play the Gas Game this week.
And you won.
AWESOME!
Petrol prices are the worst. And my car is always such a thirsty boy… It makes my wallet so much lighter to keep him satisfied. :P
I imagine it the same way. However, I actually like high gas prices. I rarely need gas as I ride my bike most of the time and when prices are high, there’s no line up. I zip in and zip out.
I used to work at a gas station and this was easy to do. We’d get the call to raise the prices and we’d all go get gas in our cars first. If we got the call to lower the prices, we’d tell everyone at the pumps to wait while we change the price and they were always happy.
Hubby puts gas in my car for me now… mostly because I have no gas money. I don’t pay attention to the prices nowadays. If I’m out and I need gas and I have a few bucks, I stop at the nearest station.
Oh and that pic up there… That’s about the price of gas from 6 years ago, right? I haven’t seen it under $3 in a long time.
Since I’ve joined the ranks of those who drive a lot for work, I’m hypervigilant about filling up at the lowest possible price. I’m always thrilled when I time it just right and beat a rising price! I feel like I pulled one over on the old gas fatcats…at least for a brief moment! :)
Also, the prices make no sense. The gas stations are usually just competing with each other. When I worked at one, we stayed a penny under the gas station a block away. That was it. When they changed, so did we.
I hate playing the gas game because most of the time I would lose unless I perform a very tight monitoring system which would require a lot of time and effort, hence making it quite not worth it afterall. However, if you do have all the extra time and nothing better to do, then why not. It could help you save a few bucks that you can accumulate to fill up your gas storage tank again in the next visit.