All of a sudden,

[OldLeftieLawyer]

as I was driving around the DC area today, I noticed an odd thing, something I've never seen in my thirty-plus years of living here.

Every gas station has the exact same prices.

Every damn one.

Even the off-brand "Liberty" place that was ALWAYS at least 20 cents/gallon cheaper than anywhere else.

One place - a Chevron station - was six cents a gallon higher than anywhere else.

But, every station is:

$2.79.9 for regular
$2.89.9 for medium
$2.99.9 for high-test

I just thought it was strange. Any theories on why this sudden conformity?

[Horse with no Name]

1. Complicity?

:shrug:

[LouisianaLiberal]

3. Collusion? Rico?

[merh]

2. Easter Holidays

stealing from the public during busy travel times.

Nothing new, nothing to see, just pay the piper and move along. :freak:

[Horse with no Name]

4. Hey there Merh!!!

:hug:

[merh]

9. Hey ya, Horsey!

:hi:

How are you doing? :hug:

[SheilaT]

5. Was this true in

DC, MD, and VA? Because state taxes vary, and so that alone ought to keep prices slightly different across state lines. If it really was all the same, that's slightly odd, but does suggest price fixing. Which I thought was illegal, but who knows these days.

[endarkenment]

6. wholesale industry consolidation

This current era of predatory capitalism once again features consolidation across all industries - it aint just media consolidation. With government regulation transformed into kleptocracy facilitation, it is not surprising at all that gas retailers are just given the latest price in lockstep.

[Trevelyan]

7. Rep. Conyers tried to head it off with his anti-Price Gouging Bill just

after Katrina and wasn't their a Senate Hearing a little bit later on the Oil Companies Price Gouging?

[TomInTib]

8. May be that the Distributors have consolidated.

That was an aggregious factor of the Cheney energy bill to protect distributors in the event of high $/bbl prices and spikes.

What you are seeing does not bode well for anyone.

Did you notice the same thing with diesel?

Oh, yeah, and Hey There!, OLL.

[TallahasseeGrannie]

10. Blame Canada

T-Grannie

[TallahasseeGrannie]

11. Okay I admit it

I only posted to show off my new walker in my sig line.

[TomInTib]

13. With legs like those you need a walker? n/t

[TallahasseeGrannie]

14. arthritis?

[tkmorris]

12. Hmm, I gassed up last night

in Delray Beach Florida and noted the prices. They were exactly that, 2.79, 2.89, and 2.99.

Any connection? No, most certainly not. But weird.

[Vickers]

16. Same prices in Boynton Beach

;)

[TAPat]

15. Same thing here in southern

Illinois - only it's $2.69.9 jumping off...
No theories though - just scratching our heads as usual. :)

[notadmblnd]

17. Racketeering, pricefixing?

nt

[IKScott]

18. Same in small towns

I live in a small town with a bunch of small towns surrounding it. So it's usual to see the gas prices about the same everywhere for competition reasons.

[TrogL]

19. Don't ask questions!!

Don't you know there's a war on?