Effecting gas prices

[piemma]

I received an email today with the following in it. I am going to do what the email states. It makes sense and it may work.

Since we all rely on our cars, we can't just stop
buying gas. But we CAN have an impact on gas prices if we all act together
to force a price war.

Here's the idea: For the rest of this year, DON'T
purchase ANY gasoline from the two biggest companies (which now are one),
EXXON and MOBIL. If they are not selling any gas, they will be inclined to
reduce their prices. If they reduce their prices, the other companies will
have to follow suit. But to have an impact, we need to reach literally
millions of Exxon and Mobil gas buyers. It's really simple to do! Now, don't
wimp out on me at this point...keep reading and I'll explain how simple it
is to reach millions of people!!

I am sending this note to 30 people. If each of us
send it to at least ten more (30 x 10 = 300) ... and
those 300 send it to at least ten more (300 x 10 =
3,000)...and so on, by the time the message reaches the sixth group of
people, we will have reached over THREE MILLION consumers.

If those three million get excited and pass this on to
ten friends each, then 30 million people will have
been contacted! If it goes one level further, you
guessed it..... THREE HUNDRED MILLION PEOPLE!!!

[Young Salt]

similar idea to 'don't buy gas on tuesday'.....nice in theroy, but it will never catch on.

it's sad that in this country the people indeed do have the power, but we often fail to use it.........too busy with our american idols and red sox nations.

i usually buy from getty or hess anyway

[tattoobob]

I never buy from them anyways, I use the mom and pops, unless I am away then I try not to go to the big names, great idea

[BigFish]

Mr Macey posted that about a week ago...it will never work!

[piemma]

I may not work but at least I'm doing my part by spreading the word and not buying fron Exxon/Mobil.

[Skitterpop]

[BigFish]

Around where I live....Exxon and Mobile are just names and they get the same fuel that every other station gets from JP Noonan....I never understood that whole brand name gas scam because I grew up next to the fuel depot in Braintree and saw what goes on!

[JohnR]

Originally Posted by BigFish

Around where I live....Exxon and Mobile are just names and they get the same fuel that every other station gets from JP Noonan....I never understood that whole brand name gas scam because I grew up next to the fuel depot in Braintree and saw what goes on!

There is a certain percentage, like 80%, that the brand name places need to carry of their own brand but say 20% can be the cheap generic stuff...

As for the boycott? I think ikt would do nothing more than generate a spam list for spammers....


From Snopes: http://www.snopes.com/politics/gasoline/gasout.asp

This year's litany of complaints about gasoline prices is a re-run of the same program from years past: Gasoline prices in the USA are too high; gasoline is a unique commodity whose price isn't subject to the usual market forces of supply and demand; OPEC and greedy American oil companies secretly manipulate the market to keep prices artificially high; and a simple boycott of a couple of brands of gasoline will rectify all this.

Oil companies can manipulate their prices somewhat by controlling how much gasoline they produce and where they sell it, but they can't alter the basics of supply and demand: prices go down when people buy less of a good, prices go up when people buy more of a good, and prices go way up when demand outstrips available supply. The "gas out" schemes that propose to alter the demand side of the equation by shunning one or two specific brands of gasoline for a while won't work, however, because they're based on the misconception that an oil company's only outlet for gasoline is its own branded service stations. That isn't the case: gasoline is a fungible commodity, so if one oil company's product isn't being bought up in one particular market or outlet, it will simply sell its output to (or through) other outlets:
Economics Prof. Pat Welch of St. Louis University says any boycott of "bad guy" gasoline in favor of "good guy" brands would have some unintended (and unhappy) results.

. . . Welch says the law of supply and demand is set in stone. "To meet the sudden demand," he says, "the good guys would have to buy gasoline wholesale from the bad guys, who are suddenly stuck with unwanted gasoline."

So motorists would end up . . . paying more for it, because they'd be buying it at fewer stations.

And yes, oil companies do buy and sell from one another. Mike Right of AAA Missouri says, "If a company has a station that can be served more economically by a competitor's refinery, they'll do it."

Right adds, "In some cases, gasoline retailers have no refinery at all. Some convenience-store chains sell a lot of gasoline — and buy it all from somebody else's refinery."
A boycott of a couple of brands of gasoline won't result in lower overall prices. Prices at all the non-boycotted outlets would rise due to the temporarily limited supply and increased demand, making the original prices look cheap by comparison. The shunned outlets could then make a killing by offering gasoline at its "normal" (i.e., pre-boycott) price or by selling off their output to the non-boycotted companies, who will need the extra supply to meet demand. The only person who really gets hurt in this proposed scheme is the service station operator, who has almost no control over the price of gasoline.

The only practical way of reducing gasoline prices is through the straightforward means of buying less gasoline, not through a simple and painless scheme of just shifting where we buy it. The inconvenience of driving less is a hardship too many people apparently aren't willing to endure, however.

[labrax]

I did hear an economist yesterday on NPR say that if we reduced our consumption by driving just 3% less per month, then that could have and effect of lowering gas prices. He was responding to the commentators question regarding a 3% decrease in consumer gas consumption causing dramtic reductions in price. While not agreeing to dramtic price drops and problems for gas companies - he did say that not driving one day a month would result in a reduction in price. He also said that we have not reached the price threshold yet where US consumers would do this yet - he figured it would be a $4/gal. Rather than boycott a specific retailer - trying to reduce our consumption by driving less, driving slower to increase MPG, etc. might achieve the small reduction and reduce the prices at the pump.

I have seen a lot more trucks for sale in the past few weeks - JohnR's included, which have to be a result of the increased fuel costs.

Rather than go to the coast with my daughter to fish yesterday - we went about 8 miles down the road to hit the Wachusett Reservoir. BTW - some real nice fish pictures from this April at the bait and tackle on right near Rt 110 and Rt 140 intersection - 5+ lb smallmouth

[spence]

I think if most people made a tiny effort they could reduce their gas consumption by more than 3% simply by subtle alterations to their behavior.

Drive a little slower, try to carpool once a week, consolidating shopping trips on the weekend etc...

But the real solution is to demand game changing technology from Industry and yes even our Government.

Now SUV's and trucks are not evil, and some people certainly need them for work or to haul a boat.

But think back at all the times you've laughed at those stupid French people in their little bitty stupid French cars.

Yea, I'm talking to you.

Better suck it up and change your attitude. Save the '68 SS for the showroom and buy a Citrogen 2CV for the daily commute. You won't look as cool, and you make not impress the ladies...

...but in context of all this, that new Dedge Hemi looks pretty revolting doesn't it?

Hell, it's a threat to our freaking National Security!

Raven, Brazil provides a vision...not a feesable model.

To do what Brazil did we would have to bascially socialize the energy industry and import even more workers from Mexico.

Yes, the dirty little secret behind Brazil's success is near slave labor!

-spence

[Raven]

the power of this country is AGRICULTURAL
and forgive me if i see a solution in it
but i'm a farmer, and have that perspective...

the country of BRAZIL is using ethol alcohol bigtime
and the usa's production of it is teeny to say the least.

our soil and climate makes us one
of the strongest agricultural nations in the world
but we dont utilize it for the sake of energy which is
why we are in so deep cow manure which could also be
makin methane...gas...as well

or bio -diesel -> we could be makin that
and all the friggan sugar cane could be makin alcohol
but nooooooooooooooooooo
the oil companies are running this friggan country.
and they dont want that happening...

i'm so busy i didnt even know it was saturday hahahah
time for waffles....

[bluzjamer]

On News today:
China pays $1.93 a gallon for reg.
Iraq $.35
Venesuela $.19
I think we will all be car pooling to the fishin holes this summer.

[MakoMike]

How about we nationally adopt a four day workweek, same amount of hours just compressed into four days. As a country we would save 20% of the fuel used to commute!