One minor detail worth remembering:
The price you pay isn't based on the cost of the fuel currently in their tank; rather, it's based on what they're going to have to pay tomorrow to fill it back up again.
Or so I've heard. And really, all that does it move your problem one step upstream.
I went to church with a guy thatnwas a VP at a large gas retailer in the west. His main job was to set the prices. He told me they always speculate up on bad news. And let the demand dictate prices when its good news. In other words, bad news affects prices today so you pay today what they thibk it will be worth weeks or months from now. But when its good news or no news, you pay for the fuel thats in the tanks now
Which ever Iran sponsored terrorist group does the anti-ship missile thing as their specialty at the entrance to the red sea (its the Houthis).
Which is why their was a massive air op against them specifically back in March 2025 when they briefly went on a anti-ship anti-shipping spree.
Unfortunately a lot of shit get shipped via boat through there, and lot of prices around anything bulk is purely based on vibes and speculative futures.
Fuel for example goes up immediately even though nothing will change in supply for another month or two, but speculation sets the price immediately to hedge positions in the market and make some extra cash before nothing happens.
I did, anything bulk is usually priced on vibes and speculative futures, I used fuel as an example becuase everyone knows about fuel, price goes up immediately, takes forever to go down to meet supply vs demand.
Replace fuel any bulk item
Maybe to increase traffic to your store? Why take half when you could take 75-80%? Gas has razor thin margins anyways. Gas stations make money on sales they do inside. More traffic=more people to come in and buy things.
Exactly why McDonald's sells cheap fountain pop during the summer. They're still profiting, any additional impulse purchase is more profit too.
Saw a small container of gum at a truckstop. 8.99. I get the same at a grocery store or Walmart for 4.99. Fuel stations depend more on foot traffic buying store goods than fuel.
That's exactly why they float down so slowly. When prices spike everyone has to go up or the stations will lose money. When prices fall they all slowly look at each other's prices as they go down. The wholesale market may drop 50¢ over night, but gas stations will start decreasing the price in 5-10¢ increments over a series of weeks. This is also when the stations can make a little extra margin if they buy well, or lose margin if they don't.
Diesel will not see the same fall as other fuels since it is easier to produce with darker heavy crude oils that are abundant in the middle east and the reserve oils countries are promising are light in diesel so they can not subsidize demand for as long as other fuels like gasoline which is easier to make with lighter fuels we find elsewhere in the world. This is all not mentioning the refinary issues. The dark oil refinaries in the middle east that use the strait are out of commison right now
Exactly, fuel prices shoot up like a rocket and float down like a feather. Some fuel cards offer cost-plus fuel pricing at their locations (CFN or Pacific Pride) so your price drops with the wholesale market rather than waiting for the retail price to drop.
The only drawback to cost-plus fuel card pricing is that when prices shoot up like they did in the last two weeks the wholesale price goes up immediately while it may take retail a few days to follow.
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