A bit more first-hand data. I drove back into the DC area last night (6/5), from Roanoke. At Roanoke, I got gas for $3.40 per gallon. On I-81 up to I-66, gas was commonly available at 3.49 per gallon. I got it at exit 291 at that price (note that that's a 16 cent drop since the week earlier, when it was 3.65 per gallon at that exit). Out of curiousity (and for the reason explained in the next post), I stopped again at the Sheetz at exit 40, and got 1.2 gallons of gas for 3.65 per gallon. On the commute home today, I scoped out prices between Alexandria and Falls Church. I spotted one at 3.97 (In Alexandria, I think), several in the 3.80's and one (the lowest) at 3.78. So that's a disparity of 39-57 cents per gallon, compared to Roanoke.
Bottom line is that you can see that there must be something approaching true competition (perhaps not "perfect competition"), down I-81, but something approaching oligopolistic behavior in the DC area.
Must be nice to sell gas in the DC area!
PS: if any of my readers has a non-gouging explanation for this pricing behavior, let me know, and I'll publish it prominently.
Bottom line is that you can see that there must be something approaching true competition (perhaps not "perfect competition"), down I-81, but something approaching oligopolistic behavior in the DC area.
Must be nice to sell gas in the DC area!
PS: if any of my readers has a non-gouging explanation for this pricing behavior, let me know, and I'll publish it prominently.
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