Just back form North Wales, staggered by the price differential in fuel!
Firstly, Tesco in Porthmadog was selling its basic unleaded at 131.9 and not 7 miles up the road a texaco station was selling at 147.9!
Later the tesco cut its price to 130.9!
Thats a difference of 17p in a 7 mile radius! how is that justified?
|
Well, it isn't really but the first rule of retailing is to set your prices at what your customers will pay so presumably enough were prepared to go to Texaco.
If they did so willingly and in the knowledge of the relative bargain at Tesco then ultimately everyone was happy enough.
Or maybe Welsh people are a bit stupid, I wouldn't know...They eat seaweed you know.
:-))
|
>> Thats a difference of 17p in a 7 mile radius! how is that justified?
>>
>>
By people being daft enough to pay the higher price.
|
Your 147.9 is an extreme case and I have seen others. They cannot be interested is selling any volume, for whatever reason - maybe they are just profiting from an isolated location.
It doesn't have to be justified, though you raise an interesting question. There's only one filling station in Tring, and its consistently expensive, at c. 3p more than the cheaper ones at Hemel Hempstead 10 miles away. The fact that it is the only station in the town is the obvious explanation.
More inexplicable is that the typical cheapest price of diesel in Aylesbury is usually 2p-3p higher than that in High Wycombe. Both places have enough outlets for there to be some competition.
Most of us probably spend more on road fuel than domestic gas and electricity, and arguably road fuel is an equally essential staple, yet domestic utilities are regulated and taxed at a special low rate, and road fuel looks like a less than efficient market, is unregulated, and taxed to the rafters.
|
I noticed last time I was in North Wales some petrol stations put their prices up for the weekend tourist trade.
However my local Tesco Esso is 137.9p, the Shells are 136.9p and the ASDA just two miles away is 132.7p.
ASDA has been getting quite a bit of my business lately as a result.
The part of Manchester where I live is typically around 4-5p more expensive than other areas, but its full of southerners and they are daft enough to pay it.
|
The owner of the country garage I used to work for priced his fuel a few pence above most of the competition.
The forecourt was more a service to the locals, who received a small discount for prompt payment of their monthly accounts.
If passers-by bought fuel, the owner was determined he would make a little from it.
Even at his prices, the margins were tiny.
He told me his wisest move was installing full-size underground bulk tanks, which meant the garage could take a full tanker load, even if not very often.
Two benefits - it was cheaper to buy by the tanker load, and some oil companies wouldn't deliver at any price unless you had the capacity to take most of the tanker.
Fewer and fewer truly independent sites around these days, but the Texaco station spotted by Zero could be privately owned, and therefore going its own way.
|
Consumers like to think of retailers as providers of services.
Retailers like to think of consumers as providers of profit.
Last edited by: Humph D'Bout on Sat 25 Jun 11 at 19:26
|
The texaco was extreme, but prices all round were dearer by at least 5p a litre more.
At one end of porthmadog main street is tesco at 130.9, the shell station at the other end (thats 600 yards) is 132.9 and round the corner a texaco is 135.9.
There were queues most days to get in the shell, and the tesco was empty. A sub plot here is that the tesco is fully automated, no till, pay at pump with card only. I suspect most locals cant or wont use it.
|
|
Y'see that's what happens to your brain when you eat seaweed and take too much interest in sheep. Stands to reason.
|
>> Y'see that's what happens to your brain when you eat seaweed and take too much
>> interest in sheep.
Not the voice of experience I trust?
|
>>A sub plot here is that the tesco is fully automated, no till, pay at pump with card only. I suspect most locals cant or wont use it. >>
No labour costs then?
|
|
nope but how much does that, and cash handling, cost per litre?
|
Fuel - price differential - Runfer D'Hills
