(NOTE: It is not my practice to double-post, and I discourage it. However, I think this story meaningful enough to post in this forum. MP)
I would encourage folks to take note of those prices that seem like the upside outlier. The $2.99 when everyone's at $2.85... etc. Document it. Get a gallon and keep the receipts. If someone jumps 20 cents or more and then a day passes and no one else does, then that's a reason to call your attorney general's office.
In most cases, price gouging isn't just the $6 gas you see on TV. It's those folks who are tacking on an extra quarter or fifty cents. We had a gas station here that was at $2.99 when everyone else was at the low $2.80s. I walked up (with cameraman) to talk to the folks filling up, just telling them they were at the highest place in town. After 10 minutes, the worker inside came out with a phone, and I thought he was going to tell us to get off the premises. (for those who don't know, if there's not a no trespassing sign or marker, you can go onto public-access property until you are told to leave. If you then don't obey, you're trespassing.) Instead, he handed me the phone. The owner was on the other end.
I only told him my name, and my media affiliation. Without saying anything, he said. "2.99 is a mistake! That's a mistake! The (person inside working) made a mistake! It should be $2.89... $2.89!!!. Again, funny thing, I never asked him a single question, or even mentioned to any employee his prices.
It's always a red flag when someone either denies something, or says something was a mistake, before you have even asked the question. Perhaps he was telling the truth, that it was really a mistake.
(eyes and ears open)
mp
10 gallons, about 3 week's commuting gas.
