State Orders Gas Station to Raise Prices

bryn_cmbs

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.

macgyver06

turns out gas is the true elastic good.

Pacomc79

so why exactly does wisconsin have that law?????

whom does it protect?

norm

our country is really going batshit crazy.......:mad:

macgyver06

Pacomc79 wrote:

so why exactly does wisconsin have that law?????

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....

polaris

Pacomc79 wrote:

so why exactly does wisconsin have that law?????

whom does it protect?

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)

macgyver06

you dont thin kthe higher the gas is..the more money the federal gov't gets to supports its biggest interests...which right now is a war.

farfromglorified

The purpose of this law is to protect gas stations from predatory pricing. And many states have laws like this.

In other words, laws like this come out of the same bitches you'll make in the next Wal-Mart thread.

macgyver06

farfromglorified wrote:

The purpose of this law is to protect gas stations from predatory pricing. And many states have laws like this.

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?

farfromglorified

macgyver06 wrote:

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.

onelongsong

polaris wrote:

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)

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.

blackredyellow

polaris wrote:

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)

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.

polaris

onelongsong wrote:

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.

but isn't that what the free market is all about? ...

polaris

blackredyellow wrote:

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.

but why gas stations and not everything else?

onelongsong

polaris wrote:

but isn't that what the free market is all about? ...

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.

polaris

onelongsong wrote:

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?

farfromglorified

polaris wrote:

but isn't that what the free market is all about? ...

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"???

1970RR

polaris wrote:

still ... why are they protecting gas stations but not other retailers?

Many states have them - milk pricing is a good example.
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

polaris

1970RR wrote:

Many states have them - milk pricing is a good example.
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?

farfromglorified

polaris wrote:

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.

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