Every driver wants to make sure they are getting a good deal when filling up the gas tank. So when we got an email from a concerned driver, who was concerned she was getting ripped off, we went looking for answers.
Watch Ali Hoxie's report in the video player below
I got an an email from Kim, saying in part, “we often hear gas price trends on Monday mornings. However when I go to the gas station 23/59 corridor, prices are usually 10-15 cents higher than the metro Detroit averages. Why is this?”
She feels residents are getting a raw deal. So why do prices always vary so much from community to community?
“They are lower, and I am glad about that," said Waterford resident Calvin Patello.
Even though the bitter cold might be a slap in the face, at least gas prices aren't hitting our wallets.
“Right now, I feel like they are a little stable, around $2.80ish — so that seems to be ok," said David Franklin from West Bloomfield.
That being said, it depends on where you fill up.
“Where I live at in West Bloomfield, it is a little bit higher, but I can understand that, the price point, but in the inner city it is a little cheaper," Franklin said.
He's not the only one who's noticed a difference from city to city in metro Detroit. After getting that email from Kim, saying prices are always high where she lives, I wanted to learn why. So I turned to Patrick De Haan with GasBuddy.
“It is hard to know if what your viewer saw was the middle of a price cycle that happened at one station and didn’t yet happened at another," De Haan said. "It could be affluence, it could be a lack of competition.”
Price cycling may play a factor into this. Price cycling is when gas stations repeatedly lower prices, only to suddenly hike them back up when it stops being profitable. It happens around every week to every two weeks.
“If one station has already cycled, and they’ve raised their prices, maybe the other stations have not yet raised their prices, and they’re much lower," De Haan said.
Prices can also be determined by what the owner of that station is trying to accomplish. Not a lot of traffic? There are higher prices to make up for it. Or a ton of traffic might mean they can drop prices. It depends on what the owner wants; a community's wealth plays a role in how much people are willing to pay.
Which begs the question: are you paying more solely based on where you live, and is that fair?
“Price gouging is a famous term that a lot of folks like to use; it is poorly defined legally," De Haan said. "It’s hard for you to say your price gouged if you willingly picked up the pump handle and started putting gas in your car and didn’t check the price. It is hard to make that defense when consumers are all foretold of what that station is charging, both on the street sign and both on the pump.”
De Haan told me that the best way to combat high prices is to shop around.
“When people patronize stations that are more competitive, it forces the stations that are less competitive to suddenly lower prices and become more competitive," De Haan said.
But with busy lives, shopping around is sometimes easier said than done.
“I don’t really pay attention to it much. If I need gas, I just get gas, you know, unfortunately," said Joe Trionfo from Shelby Township.
If you have something that is driving you crazy, please email me at Ali.Hoxie@WXYZ.com, or you can send me a message on my Instagram or Facebook page.
