State Orders Gas Station to Raise Prices
bryn_cmbs
Posts: 407
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070509/ap_on_fe_st/odd_cheap_gas;_ylt=AkXEhjtunU0C17W2rFU7AfwDW7oF
Gas station owner told to raise prices Wed May 9, 6:05 AM ET
MERRILL, Wis. - A service station that offered discounted gas to senior citizens and people supporting youth sports has been ordered by the state to raise its prices.
Center City BP owner Raj Bhandari has been offering senior citizens a 2 cent per gallon price break and discount cards that let sports boosters pay 3 cents less per gallon.
But the state Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection says those deals violate Wisconsin's Unfair Sales Act, which requires stations to sell gas for about 9.2 percent more than the wholesale price.
Bhandari said he received a letter from the state auditor last month saying the state would sue him if he did not raise his prices. The state could penalize him for each discounted gallon he sold, with the fine determined by a judge.
Bhandari, who bought the station a year ago, said he worries customers will think he stopped the discounts because he wants to make more money. About 10 percent of his customers had used the discount cards.
Dale Van Camp said he bought a $50 card to support the local youth hockey program. It would have saved him about $100 per year on gas, he said.
Gas station owner told to raise prices Wed May 9, 6:05 AM ET
MERRILL, Wis. - A service station that offered discounted gas to senior citizens and people supporting youth sports has been ordered by the state to raise its prices.
Center City BP owner Raj Bhandari has been offering senior citizens a 2 cent per gallon price break and discount cards that let sports boosters pay 3 cents less per gallon.
But the state Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection says those deals violate Wisconsin's Unfair Sales Act, which requires stations to sell gas for about 9.2 percent more than the wholesale price.
Bhandari said he received a letter from the state auditor last month saying the state would sue him if he did not raise his prices. The state could penalize him for each discounted gallon he sold, with the fine determined by a judge.
Bhandari, who bought the station a year ago, said he worries customers will think he stopped the discounts because he wants to make more money. About 10 percent of his customers had used the discount cards.
Dale Van Camp said he bought a $50 card to support the local youth hockey program. It would have saved him about $100 per year on gas, he said.
Post edited by Unknown User on
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Comments
whom does it protect?
its most likely influenced at the federal level... probaly set back before the war.. one of those...you install this law... we will give you a huge fountain for city hall kinda thing... every state has one of these laws in place...
convenient.
the key point of installing a fascist regime...is that...the people living under one...don't see the big picture and realize they ar eliving under a fascist regime.
because if we knew....
it protects the gas stations that don't want to help the community ...
it means that the oil companies that are losing business because of this guy has more power then the constituents that are benefitting from this program ... this is not isolated to wisconsin ... it is america as a whole (and canada for the most part)
In other words, laws like this come out of the same bitches you'll make in the next Wal-Mart thread.
you ever bought gas at a Sam's CLub?
Yes. In many states it's much cheaper. However, in many states predatory pricing is completely disallowed. In others, Sam's can still discount because their acquisition price is less based on their volume.
it keeps a gas station from starting a price war and putting a competitor out of business. this happened a lot in the 70's.
The laws protect mom and pop gas stations and small local stations. I grew up in the Pittsburgh area, and there was a boom of the big convenience store/gas stations a few years ago. They would come in to an area and price their gas a several cents less then the local gas station/garage that has been there for years. They would take a loss on gas because they knew they would make up for it on sales of food, etc. It would eventually force some of the small stations to close or sell and then once the competition was pretty much gone, they would raise their prices up to the "normal" market rate.
was like a picture
of a sunny day
“We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses.”
― Abraham Lincoln
but isn't that what the free market is all about? ...
but why gas stations and not everything else?
see post #12.
i sell my meat at $15.00 to $20.00 per pound under market price. i can hold out until the others start going out of business. i don't consider that free market. i'm sabotaging the industry.
still ... why are they protecting gas stations but not other retailers?
It's part of what a free market is all about, yes. To those who think that predatory pricing is "sabatoging" industry -- what specifically is being "sabatoged"???
Here is a link to a Canadian report about these type of laws: http://www.competitionbureau.gc.ca/internet/index.cfm?itemID=1292&lg=e#Footnote62
oh ... i know about the competition bureau here ...
what i'm trying to gather is why they have a law like that for gas stations but not for say ma and pa book stores or grocery stores?
Umm...they do. Plenty of cities have laws against large retailers and other things to help protect established businesses and to limit competition.
uhhh ... then why is all of america a clone of another ... you can drive thru myrtle beach, SC and it looks exactly like destin, FL ... everytown anchored by a wal-mart and home depot ... obviously, this is exaggerated a bit but i've spent a bit of time driving thru small town america and the ma and pa stores are fading faster then acid wash jeans ...
It is an exaggeration. And to say that "ma and pa stores are fading faster than acid wash jeans" is ridiculous. There are more small businesses in America than ever.
visit some small towns out west.
i'm a one man opperation and doing fine.
other opperations won't be able to sell at the low prices and will go out of business. that gives me the oppertunity to buy them out and at that point; i can set the prices.
the only reason a convenient store sells gas is so that you come into their store and buy the stuff they can make huge profits on.
they don't want retailers to be able to control the gas prices because than it will create sort of a market...and the federal gov't loses lots and lots and BILLIONS of dollars.
this is something though...kinda irony with a twist...
our government creates a war to gain control of oil shipments here... they get that oil they seek...but instead of gettting oil to save our economy...it worsens it.
I'm not sure of the point you're making. Yes, in a commodity market the lowest price will win and that means the most efficient or capitalized operation will rule the market. However, how does this "sabatoge industry"? In the event that I push you out of the market, how is there less industry than there was before?
Because that was the motivation behind this law -- protecting retailers from predatory pricing.
So?
Huh? No one "controls" gas prices except for governments who sometimes set them.
Umm...maybe this should make you rethink the whole "war for oil" thing. It's a silly oversimplification.
obviously subjective ... but, i wonder if there are stats that are related to say book stores, grocery stores, hardware and see how many are independently owned 1997 vs. 2007 ... i would suspect those numbers have dropped significantly ...
i could be wrong - i'm just basing this on my experience visiting various towns ...
is it because you sell a specialty product? ... are the big corporate farms - raising buffalo and such?
Very much so, yes. Small bookstores, hardware stores and grocery stores are fading fast. However, small Internet companies, home improvement service providers, and dietary consultants/providers are growing fast.
A mom and pop grocery store has no more of a right to the market than Wal-mart does. Consumers evaluate their choices and choose who gets their business. It's not complicated, nor is it a tragedy by default.
You're not wrong, really. You're just not looking at the full picture.