Why do gas prices...?

Question

...go up in one day? if u kept ur prices low, more ppl will wont to come to ur gas station so u will be making MORE money then the other gas stations. and u can still pay for the gas and the other stuffff u ell there.

Answer 1

Gas stations all have to be the same price, its the law

Answer 2

well reason is, we import gas from the middle east, that cost money, the company has to buy it, therfore raising prices. if we didnt import oil, petrol would half of what it is now.

Answer 3

Simple.

Gas stations have nothing to do (nearly anyways) with gas prices.

Like any other vendor, gas stations purchase gasoline and diesel fuel from manufacturers. (in this case, refineries)

A gas station actually makes very little profit on gas. Most stations profit between ten and fifteen cents.

If the price THEY pay for the gas goes up 1 cent, they can probably afford to leave their price where it is, but if gas goes up 15 cents in one day, they either leave it where it is and charge the customers exactly the same rate they're paying for the gas, or they raise the price. It would be stupid to leave your price the same, even if it meant selling less gas.

So the only way a gas station can charge less per gallon than the other stations, is by selling it at 12 cents markup rather than the usual 15. This obviously doesn't amount to a huge difference.

The OTHER reason gas prices go up is because they CAN. Gas is a dependency commodity, meaning the world already NEEDS it. There is NO way the world can function without it, at least not on short notice. So heavy increases in price will only effect "luxury" driving, or recreational driving. And will also prompt people to drive less inefficient cars. But all of this is good for the oil companies to a degree. If they can sell less of their product and profit the same amount, they're making more money for doing less work.

If demand drops significantly however it may start to bring the price back down a bit. Which is why people should drive less, and listen to the intelligent people in our midst that have develloped ways to get better mileage out of their cars by adding to or modifying their vehicles to increase MPG's.

Personally I have added fuel alignment magnets (seen about a 20% increase (35 mpg increased to 44 mpg) then I added a HHO electrolyzer system and increased mileage to 59 MPG's, Plus a K&N air filter (was going to go with cold air intake but realized my HHO system was blocking the space it would have needed) and increased MPG's to 60.

I was hoping for better results from the HHO system especially, but it was still well worth the time and money. I'm still working on tweaking it to see if I can get more out of it. I know a lot of people claim it's a scam, but results don't lie. But major corporations do lie. SOME of the HHO systems makers selling on ebay and elsewhere are less than helpful and are obviously in it just for the money, but it doesn't mean it's an entirely useless system.

Answer 4

Wow.  I hope that you are very young because you don't understand business and the economy at all.

If you sold anything for a loss as a business owner, it would drive you right out of business.  

Truth is, it isn't the gas station owners that are getting rich from high gas prices.  It is the oil companies and the middle east.

Answer 5

The parent companies of the station dictate the prices.  Their pricing decisions are based on many things though mainly local market trends.  It has absolutely nothing to do with the laws.