State to allow half gallon gasoline sales

[sabra]

http://www.journalnow.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=WSJ%2FMGArticle%2FWSJ_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1031784785835&path=!localnews!article&s=1037645509099

State to allow half gallon gasoline sales

RALEIGH, N.C. - Rapidly rising gasoline prices have caused a problem with old gas pumps that can't compute prices higher than $2.99 a gallon, so North Carolina regulators said stations with the old machines can measure fuel by the half gallon.

The rule change was allowed because it was anticipated that gasoline prices could reach $3 a gallon because of supply problems caused by Hurricane Katrina.

The change by the state Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services announced Wednesday means the total sale would appear to be half price on the pump but the customer would be charged the full price at the cash register, the department said.

"We expect that probably 25 percent of the pumps in the state are mechanical pumps," said Jerry Butler, who oversees gas pump inspections for the state.

[MADem]

1. America just finally may go metric~!!!

How many liters to fill your tank???

[HadItUpToHere]

9. doubtful.

i don't know from litres...but my tank would hold 52 quarts.

[3waygeek]

13. It's 3.785 liters/us gallon n/t

[rfkrfk]

23. the gallon is already essentially metric, related by these conversions

the inch is a derivative of the centimeter,by this...
the inch is 2.54 centimeters, by definition

the gallon is 231 cubic, by definition

[Igel]

2. Won't this confuse all the people who didn't get up to 2

in their multiplication table?

[Sequoia]

3. My friend in Asheville said the limit was 10 gallons

and $2.99 per right now.

[krkaufman]

4. Oooo, that's the first I've heard of limiting sales. n/t

[Hobarticus]

6. Probably not a bad idea...

My wife's co-worker and her husband filled up ten two-gallon gas cans last night, plus both of their vehicles. That's litt le more than hoarding, IMHO.

[TroglodyteScholar]

12. I overheard someone today...

...saying they were in line behind someone who bought 250 gallons. THAT is hoarding. The twenty extra gallons your co-worker bought is good for a fill-up and a little bit. This asshole who bought 250 gallons can drive his Hummer or whatever for at least 100 miles now. :sarcasm:

[sarcasmo]

7. This is great news for those bulldozer SUV'S that get 10 mpg.

[truebrit71]

8. No kidding....it's gonna be fun driving by those stranded SUV's!!

40-gal gas tank....can only fill 1/4 of it...run out after 100 miles....hehehehehehehe

[Katarina]

22. Flagler County, Fl

4 stations in our town are limiting us to 15 gallons. I filled up Tuesday night and my van isn't budging other that to go to and from bus stops.

Reports in the Daytona Beach News-Journal today say Volusia County schools have enough fuel on hand for 8 or 9 days. Not sure about my county yet.

http://www.news-journalonline.com/NewsJournalOnline/News/Headlines/03NewsHEAD06090105.htm

Here is another article from the Orlando Sentinel:
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/orl-fuel0105sep01,0,4521902.story?coll=orl-home-headlines

[krkaufman]

5. Great pic. I especially love the inclusion of the ".9" on each. n/t

[BrightKnight]

10. should be "6"

arm 6
leg 6
first born 6

Big oil price gouging is defiantly the work of the devil.

[Roland99]

11. Gas by the quart soon?

[durablend]

14. By the Dixie Cup soon after that

[Xithras]

16. Don't they sell it by the liter in Canada?

IMO, the oil companies would just use it to further gouge us. We're so used to paying $2.50 now that paying a buck a quart will seem like a deal to the mathematically challenged (i.e. a huge number of Americans).

[trogdor]

15. Gee, Floyd's Fillin' Station is still running?

Do Gomer and/or Goober still work there?

"We expect that probably 25 percent of the pumps in the state are mechanical pumps," said Jerry Butler, who oversees gas pump inspections for the state.

[booksenkatz]

18. Nope, Goober ain't there right now

He's in the White House!

[54anickel]

17. I remember when they couldn't register a dollar for a price. The

service station guy had to do a bit of math to come up with your purchase total. I can't believe those pumps were replaced by something that can't figure 3.00 and up.

[Orrin_73]

19. Why not per liter

just like the rest of the world.

[Karla Marx]

20. Less product for the same price

Notice how often companies will subtly decrease product portions while holding the prices steady? Such as: the number of ounces of chips in a bag has declined over the years, while the bag size and price has pretty much remained the same. I've also noticed this with grocery store coffee (bags of beans or the ground crap)--now you get 12 oz in a bag that looks like it could hold 16 oz, but the price hasn't dropped. So you're effectively paying more (that's what I get for drinking grocery store coffee).
It's like invisible inflation, a kind of a packaging sleight-of-hand. I think that's the idea behind half-gallon sales. Seeing "the same price" at the pump will be psychologically less disturbing to us consumers than doubling the old price (and, thanks to the magic of cognitive dissonance, you can all but ignore the fact that you're getting half as much).

[MADem]

21. Quite true

No one does the math, or very few of us, it seems. Those cans of coffee used to be a POUND of coffee, and now, 12 ounces.

In Europe and Japan, sizes are much smaller for all grocery items (save beer, you can get that in massive tubs!).