Health & Fitness
Something wrong at the gas pumps and no one does anything
Gas prices rise at the pumps well before the cost actually goes up. And all the stations do it at the same time. Profiteering? Price gouging? Price fixing? Something needs to be done.
I went to a gas station about 10:30 a.m. last Friday and paid $3.95 a gallon for regular. At Noon I went back with another car and the price was $3.99 a gallon. Why the increase at that pump? Nothing changed with the price of the gas in the the station's tanks. Maybe gas futures did go up, or a nearby gas distribution plant was about to close, or maybe China's demand increased, but nothing happened to change the cost of the gas that station was pumping. Yet the price went up. Doesn't this smell like profiteering or gouging.
Of course an owner has a right to increase the price when his cost goes up. But it's not the same when the higher price hasn't been paid yet. And of course the station owner can charge whatever the owner likes. But every station is raising the price at the same time before their cost goes up. So what if there is no actual agreement among station owners. Doesn't this smell like price fixing?
Both profiteering/gouging and price fixing are illegal in New York. Isn't anyone in government taking a whiff?
