Shut Up About Gas Prices Already!

[Pagan]

Yeah, I'm somewhere around $3.69-$3.98 depending on what station I go to. I was all excited that my little local one was hovering at $3.43 for a while, but then they got with the game and raised theirs.

Hate to tell y'all this, but when I filled up last Tuesday, it was $3.18/gal.

I made some sympathetic clucking noises and moved on about my business.

I don't know why, but this made me laugh!

[OfficeSlug]

Us grocery-grinders are hearing it too - food is related to gas (somebody's gotta transport all the nom's) and when fuel prices shoot up, food prices tend to as well.

I was checking in to say that.


If we hear it at a grocery store, I can't imagine working at a gas station.

Sympathies, ladies and gents. Truly.

[blas]

Clothing store employees will hear it soon as well, the cost of cotton and other materials is going up.

The only promising thing is that fashion is always a season ahead, so stuff HAS to go on sale and clearance, if they want to get rid of it in time for the next season's apparrel.

[Midnight_Angel]

... but the fact that a lot of our non-American friends pay far less for health care is a fact that is relevant to this discussion.)

Hmm... just out of curiosity (and running the risk of derailing the thread): what do you have to shell out for health care in Key West?

Mine (statutory health insurance + compulsory long term care insurance) here is at around 660 Euros a month, of which my employer shoulders some 300, leaving €360/month to be paid by me.

[drunkenwildmage]

"Maybe you shouldn't drive that F-150 then, huh?"

Well..Some of us can't cram ourselves into a Pruis without a bottle of Vaseline and a running start.

[Pagan]

Hmm... just out of curiosity (and running the risk of derailing the thread): what do you have to shell out for health care in Key West?

Mine (statutory health insurance + compulsory long term care insurance) here is at around 660 Euros a month, of which my employer shoulders some 300, leaving €360/month to be paid by me.

He doesn't have to shell out anything if he doesn't want to. We don't have to have health insurance in the US.

[MadMike]

I feel the need to step in now and remind everyone not to take this thread into Fratching territory. Most of the replies have been fine, but we did have to remove one a few minutes ago.

Back on topic, I'm starting to dread going into work in the morning, because I pass the supermarket / gas station, and it seems like every time I go past it, the price has taken another jump. Surprisingly, it actually went down a few cents yesterday, down to $3.45 from $3.49 the other day. It's still at $3.45, and while I probably could have another day before I had to fill up, I figured I better do it now before the price goes up again.

Of course, now that I just filled up, the price will probably drop like a rock.

[Bella_Vixen]

Back when I worked at the 'Q (a gas station), towards the end of my tenure was a HUGE gas price hike.

Everyone was charging extra gas surcharges.

Everyone? Surely I'm exaggerating....or am I?




Even our gas delivery company was charging it.

[Food Lady]

I don't see any point in complaining about gas prices. No one I would bitch to has anything to do with it. You need it for your car so you can get where you need to go. Period. That would be like complaining if toilet paper prices went up. What are you gonna do ? Use newspaper ?

You've explained my point of view far better than I have.

[blas]

If TP alone went up in price, I'd use paper towel.

[Dave1982]

If TP alone went up in price, I'd use paper towel.

Um...ow? And potentially clogged toilets?

[blas]

It'll be alright.

If I have to take a dookie, I'll just go to my parents' house and use their toilet and TP. Or get over that particular fear, and go at work.

Win win.

[Shalom]

What are you gonna do ? Use newspaper ?

How about corncobs? That's how they did it in the old days.

Then there was the exchange between a rural customer and Sears' mail order division:

"Gentlemen: Please send me one dozen rolls of toilet paper. I am enclosing $1.20."

"Sir: Unfortunately, since the printing of our previous catalog, the price of toilet paper has risen from 10¢/roll to 15¢/roll. Therefore, the money you have sent is insufficient. Please remit an additional 60¢ to cover the increase in price. For your convenience, we are enclosing a copy of our latest catalog with updated prices."

"Gentlemen: Thank you kindly for your catalog. Please return my $1.20, as I no longer need the toilet paper."

Also, it's funny you should mention newspaper. That's happened, but not in the way you mean it: they used it for gasoline, not TP.

Bell South did this back in 1992. They were mandated to pick up the old phone books when delivering new ones, and had a warehouse full of old phone books that even the recyclers didn't want, so they figured out how to extract methyltetrahydrofuran out of the paper and used it to fuel their trucks. 18 phone books, or 10 Manhattan phone books, gave them the equivalent of a gallon of gas. Probably cost them more than actual gas to do it that way at the time, but at least they were rid of all that low-grade pulp paper that nobody else wanted. With today's prices for fuel, it suddenly becomes more economical.

http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstra...AF0894DA494D81

Of course nowadays who uses phone books? Everyone is on the internet.

[nuthing12]

Ha! It'll be $5 by the summer...Or so the skeptical customers say. I just roll my eyes and move on. Whatever.

Hope so! My uncle owns a chain of gas stations and people are still gonna need to drive. Lot more SC's and drive offs but we prosecute those severely

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

I don't see any point in complaining about gas prices. No one I would bitch to has anything to do with it. You need it for your car so you can get where you need to go. Period. That would be like complaining if toilet paper prices went up. What are you gonna do ? Use newspaper ?

Pull a Sheryl Crow and wipe your ass with your hand.