Sherry Chandler » 2005 » October » 02
Bobbi Ann Mason has an op-ed of that title in the NYTimes today. She begins like this:
ON the Monday after Hurricane Katrina, cars lined up on Broadway, a busy street here in my hometown. Rumors of $4-a-gallon gas sent people straight to my brother’s store, Don Mason’s Gas-N-Go.
“I sold 5,000 gallons at $2.46, twice as much in six hours as I did on the best day I’d ever had,” Don told me. “But the next day was the worst - I had no gas.”
Don sells generic gas, and he has had trouble getting it. “Being unbranded hurts,” he says. Unbranded usually sells for a bit less than the big names like Shell and BP, but the gas comes from the same place. “The only difference is their additives,” he says.
When the refineries shut down for Hurricane Rita, allocations to the big brands got priority, Don says. He pays up to 30 cents a gallon more than his competitors do. This week he was selling gas for $2.79 - it cost him $2.71 - and the name-brand stations in town were selling for 10 cents less.
“I can’t compete if this keeps up,” he told me.
This post was written by sherry
