Sign of the times: $3.61 gas is a bargain!
Wednesday, May 14, 2008 3:21 AM
<p>Even though the Swifty Gas on Morse Road was offering "cheap" gasoline, Gina Smith of the North Side wasn’t thrilled with $3.61 gas.</p>
SHARI LEWIS | Dispatch
Even though the Swifty Gas on Morse Road was offering "cheap" gasoline, Gina Smith of the North Side wasn’t thrilled with $3.61 gas.
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The prices almost hurt your eyes. One expert said the average gallon of unleaded gasoline cost $3.83 yesterday afternoon, but that seemed optimistic.
Plenty of places posted $3.89. At some intersections, it was $3.95 or $3.99.
Then, right there at the Swifty’s on Morse Road, a miracle. The sign read $3.61. The manager said he knew his boss was going to call to raise the price. But the boss didn’t call for hours, and a line that reached 20 cars long snaked out of the lot.
It may seem absurd to wait so long for such expensive gas, but these are absurd times.
"I’ve been waiting for 55 minutes," said Maritza Anthony, 39, as she drove her car up to a pump. She had planned to take her 18-year-old son to shop for his prom tuxedo and to apply for his driver’s permit.
The wait meant no driver’s permit yesterday – a formative day in a young man’s life delayed for $3.61 gas.
"It was worth it," she said. Her son sat beside her and didn’t argue.
The central Ohio average of $3.83 was a record, said Brad Proctor, founder of GasPriceWatch.com. That’s a direct result of the price of crude oil, experts said, which climbed to nearly $127 a barrel yesterday, also a record.
The coming weeks could see a national average around $4 for a gallon of regular unleaded, said Eric Wittenauer, energy futures analyst for Wachovia Securities in St. Louis.
Beyond that, he shied away from predictions.
"It’s unbelievable," Proctor said. "As we march toward Memorial Day, there is still room to keep going up. There is the possibility of another 10- to 25-cent increase in the next week or so. We will just see the national average climb."
Consumers are getting edgier by the day.
On Monday, panic struck in Licking County after a GasAmerica service station in Heath accidentally posted the price of diesel fuel, $4.45 per gallon, in its sign where the price for regular unleaded should have been.
Kelly Cayton, manager at the BP station across the street, said her store was slammed for the hour that the other station displayed the incorrect price. "As soon as someone pulled off the pump someone else pulled in," she said.
Cayton said the mistake prompted a widespread rumor that prices were going to jump over $4 before midnight, which spurred rushes at many area stations.
Chalk it up to more crazy talk, spurred by "the unending fascination with gasoline prices," said Terry Fleming, executive director of the Ohio Petroleum Association.
Added Proctor: "We’re in uncharted territory. It’s leading every news organization. It’s easy for rumors like that to spread."
And so does the rare happy news, like that coming from Swifty’s yesterday. Bob Vandergrift, 86, of Clintonville, came to fill up because he saw the price on the Internet. Cydne Knox, 38, who lives near the station, said she called just about everyone she knows about the $3.61 gas.
"Some of them might be in that line back there," she said, as she was finally getting her turn at the pump.
Al Fowler, the Swifty’s manager, had held that price since opening at 6 a.m. The Swifty’s doesn’t have a convenience store, so the best way to get people in is to give them good service at a low price, he said.
Around 4:30 p.m., though, the word came from the boss. Fowler walked over to the big sign with a long stick, and changed the numbers to $3.95. About 10 cars pulled out of the line immediately.
But Fowler said he wouldn’t just pull something like that on people. If they were in line because they saw a sign for $3.61, and they stayed in line, he promised to honor that price. "I’m not that cold-blooded," he said.
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