Why? We were out there in May and it was low $5s. Looking at an average price thing it looks like the highest it got was mid $5s.
You got absolutely ripped off.
Why are gas prices so high in Ames?
- Thread starter Cycsk
- Start date
You got absolutely ripped off.
Lived in a town of 4000 in northern iowa for a few years. Had a coworker who knew one of the gas station owners. They were having drinks and the owner told my coworker that he needed to change prices since he just got a new shipment of gas. To cut this shorter, the owner told him that the owner of the other gas stations in town also was the distributor. One time when a holiday was coming, he did t raise his prices like they all usually did. He received a call from the distributor and was told that if he didn’t raise the price, he would not get the next shipment.
Best think for that town was a Caseys showed up and used a different distributor. During the first gulf war, gas prices went up 80 cents at every place and people filled up out of fear, I saw Casey’s wasn’t raised and went there. They never did raise and about two days later, the rest dropped.
A quik star came in and was built on top of one of the old distributors stores and the other closed and is now a cell phone place. I refused to go into those places after learning how he would gouge people. So much for local people taking care of each other.
Best think for that town was a Caseys showed up and used a different distributor. During the first gulf war, gas prices went up 80 cents at every place and people filled up out of fear, I saw Casey’s wasn’t raised and went there. They never did raise and about two days later, the rest dropped.
A quik star came in and was built on top of one of the old distributors stores and the other closed and is now a cell phone place. I refused to go into those places after learning how he would gouge people. So much for local people taking care of each other.
Something I don't understand is how a Kwik Trip (WI style) can have significantly different prices than one down the street. Another a mile or two away usually has the lowest prices around.
You'd think it would be a company-wide deal for specific areas to have the same but I'm sure way more goes into it.
I don't live in Iowa, so I don't know. I just wanted to point out that there was another possible factor as to why the price of gas increased during the week of college move in. I am not saying the increase in demand for a college town had nothing to do with it, but the trading of oil probably had some factor in the increase of gas prices.
So you paid the upcharged price at the gas station that charges more to rip off rental cars on their way back
I was driving home from a bachelor party in southern Iowa on Sunday and saw that a gas station had gas for $3.12 along Highway 218 just north of Mt Pleasant. I wanted to wait for the Kum & Go in Riverside to get less greasy food for breakfast. It was 30ish miles or so. Gas was $3.69 in Riverside.
The price gradient from Ankeny (best price in town) to ~100 miles due west (best price in town) was $0.71 this weekend. I don't know if that's unprecedented or not, but it's pretty crazy.
Was it that BP station at Olds, they generally always have cheaper priced gasoline for some reason. Mt. Pleasant also has cheaper gas than Fairfield or Ottumwa.
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That station is consistently cheap since Cobb Oil took over.
About 30 years ago I was working at a convenience store as a second job. They had a problem at the Keokuk store so they paid me to travel there for a shift or two until they could replace the people they had to fire. This convenience store was less than a mile from the MO border and while they had pumps I didn't sell a single gallon of gas the whole time I filled in there. I was told that wasn't uncommon. With the difference in gas tax they couldn't afford to match prices so everyone in town knew to drive the extra mile or so to get the cheaper gas across the border.Interesting to see the country-wide, state gax tax.
For example, living in MO as I do, with .22 state gas tax, this is lower than the IA state tax of .24 - .305 per gal tax (not sure how that varies either). I should be paying 2-8 cents less per gal than my friends in IA. It doesn't always work that way. Right now, in Spgfld, MO the ave is about $3.17 - 3.27.
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Right now, apparently, in IOWA, gas is ranging from about $2.95 - 3.16.
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Go figure how all this works? I think stations and communities price where and what they want, often times maybe setting an 'area' price, but I can't say this for sure. There may be other costs and taxes involved also.
I'm not sure what Ames is going for at the moment.
Looking at histories I believe Iowa was at $0.20 per gallon while Missouri was at $0.11 at the time. And when driving on Missouri roads you could tell...
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For years the big stations on rural interstates kept prices 10 to 20 cents high. There was a time where the K&G by the interstate in Story City was 12 cents higher than the K&G in town that was less than a half mile away. When my son was at Cedar Falls, gas prices were often 30 cents lower than where we live.
I've used E15 a few times this summer and haven't noticed any mileage penalty. I might avoid it in the winter though.
KidSilverhair
Well-Known Member
That’s the Olds BP station on 218/27. Always the best price there for miles around (although Mt. Pleasant usually isn’t much higher, what with that competition). Riverside always seems high to me, probably trying to skim off winning gamblers at the casino.
I don't travel that way enough to have noticed before, but I made a mental note after a $.57/gallon difference.
Right now Sam’s is about .70 cents cheaper than the other stations (probably averages .30-.40 cents cheaper). At .70 cents and 20 gallon tank it would take like 2.5 fill ups to pay off the $40 membership.
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I agree. I've kept track of my mileage for the past year and a half and compared the mileage for each of the octane grades Premium 91 (Kwik Star-0% Ethanol), Regular 87 (10% Ethanol) and UNL 88 (15% Ethanol) and found that there wasn't much difference in mileage. The type of driving, highway vs city, number of stop lights, amount of idling, etc. all had a much more effect on the mileage than the ethanol content of the gasoline.
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