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Gas prices

SmartCars have been a yuppie hit in the UK for a number of years but is mainly limited to people living in the cities. In a city they are quite fun to drive, easy to park and easy on fuel. That said, I would never take one on a motorway (your Interstate eqivalent). They are too light and any high cross wind is liable to find you changing lanes without moving the wheel !!!
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Dh and I first saw the SmartCars at the Auto Show about 2 years ago (2005?) and liked the look of them. However it WOULD be for around town driving since we still have mine and it's an SUV. Liz
 
Left here last week, gas was 3.09 (Sam's or Costco) and 3.15 at regular stations.

Got back to prices about 2.93 a gallon at the regular stations. Liz
 
Went down here, too!! $3.15, much better than $3.65 a couple weeks ago. There's a "gas war" in Hart, about 30 minutes north of me and they're at $2.99 right now. Not worth the 30 minute drive for gas (nothing up there except fruit orchards) but hoping the gas war trickles down south a little bit :Coopwink:

AnotherLiz
 
$3.12 at the local Gull Road Meijer, but only $2.98 at their stores in Portage a few miles away. I'm disappointed in Meijer for this, normally their prices are consistent across the area so why there is a 14c difference atm perturbs me.

I've emailed them for comment, be interesting to see what answer I get....
 
So much for Americans buying small cars..
But getting drivers to think smaller is a huge challenge. Americans love their space. Cars are roomier and heavier than they were a generation ago. Despite improvement in technology, gas mileage in similar car models has actually gotten worse.

In 1986, a Honda Civic CRX could get 52 miles per gallon in the city and 57 miles on the highway. A 2007 Civic only gets 30 miles in the city and 40 on the open road. The new Civic is nearly three feet longer and weighs almost half a ton more.

The major reason: safety standards.

"Inside this new Civic is a chock full of safety equipment, front air bags, side airbag, a curtain, antilock brakes," said Csaba Csere, editor-in-chief of Car and Driver magazine.

That equipment adds 700 pounds and limits the ability of cars to get more miles per gallon.
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$2.87 here at home. Purchased a tank full in Spartanburg, SC, yesterday, for $2.69 a gallon.

LT
 
So I get a whimp reply from Meijers. Let's see what happens next level up......

NB I xxxx'd our personal details for obvious reasons.....

Hmm.

Seems to me that you are. You pay the same for the gas served from your Portage store as you do from the one in Gull Road.

Is not Meijers policy "always lower prices and value for money"?

I agree gas prices are volatile, but these are "future" prices. The US seems to base the price on the current price rather than what was paid for the gas already in the tanks. Fluctuations of daily price like occurs here would never be accepted in the UK.

No doubt you are still making a profit at the Portage store but still feel it is ok to to milk an extra 14c p/g from the Gull Road store. That does not seem to meld with the Meijer price promise.

I would like my complaint raised to the next level as I find the answer given unsatisfactory.

Regards

Chris...

MeijerHelpDesk wrote:
> Hello Chris,
>
> Thank you for taking the time to visit our web site and submit your comments. We value our customers and appreciate the opportunity to help answer your questions or concerns.
>
> As I am sure you are aware the gas market today is extremely volatile. Meijer sets its fuel prices at each location based upon local competition prices.
>
> It is not Meijer policy to take advantage of its valued customers because of their location. Gas pricing has always been and will continue to be based on competition in each local market.
>
> Once again thank you for taking the time to send us your comments. We appreciate your business and look forward to serving your shopping needs in the future.
>
> Sincerely, jm
> meijerhelpdesk@meijer.com <mailto:meijerhelpdesk@meijer.com>
>
>
>
> *From:* xxxxxx
> *Sent:* Sun 6/10/2007 23:58
> *To:* MeijerHelpDesk
> *Subject:* PRC:PMC
>
> From: Chris Morwood
> xxxxx
> xxxxxx
> xxxxx
>
> Unit Location - #21
>
> Comments:
> I fill up predominately at the Gull Road store, which I did today at a price of $3.129.
>
> Why do I find on the news that in the Portage store that the same gas is only $2.989 ?
>
> There is no reasonable excuse I can think of to have a 14c difference between the stores which are within a few miles.
>
> I find myself so annoyed that I am considering switching to the Walmart on Gull Road for gas in the future.
>
> I will continue to do our major shop at a Meijer store as it is generally good value and I know that the price I pay in one store for an item is uniform across the area.
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Sounds like a "canned response" to me, Brit!
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Me too Liz, but I must admit, I want to see how far up it gets..... and what their excuses are at each level.....

I intend taking it all the way to the top just for the hell of it.
 
Go for it! Make sure you let us know their caring responses. LoL!
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Me bad for delaying in response :(

Well it certainly went to the top, I had a phone call from a Mr Graham who is the Head Buyer (Gas) for all Meijers stores on Friday at 8:45am. He declined to comment via email.

I couldn't budge him from the fact that they based the price on "local competition" within a 3 mile radius. He told me the price on the day was actually a loss at the Portage store and as such couldn't be expected to move that loss across all of their stores....overall they look to make 6-7c p/g.

In the tank gas got no further - he maintains that most Meijers get a gas delivery AT LEAST 1 a day if not 2. Funny, I have never seen a delivery truck at our local, it must have been the wrong time of day when I was there.

He took great delight (imo) to telling me that the local Walmart who I threatened to defect to (for gas) was closing (which it did)...Hmm less competition = higher prices.....

Personally I would rather give the money to my local independant. He was never that much more expensive.

Meijers got our last $75 for gas.

I will not buy from a company who just want to stick with what is the local price for gas rather than what is the reasonable price. To me it is snubbing their noses at communities where they consider it is wealthier.....They should charge according to their bulk buy price, not what the local area depicts.....
 
Probably didn't want to comment via email so it wasn't in writing! That way it couldn't come back and bite him in the rear if you took it to the media.

Too bad you don't have the time to stake out your local Meijer's to see how often they get a delivery.

Glad to hear you got a response tho, even if it was a crappy one.

Btw, saw gas at $2.87 last night on the way to the er. Liz
 
I was driving to work this morning and found Regular to be ONLY $3.219. I celebrated this find by spending about $40.00. :thankyou:
 
Brit, Meijer likely does NOT make 6-7cents per gallon (as you probably already guessed!). Aron works at a gas Station and has the capability to look up profit. Usually the profit is 8-10cents a gallon (and his store and Meijer are usually within a penny of each other) BUT during the Hurricanes when gas went up, guess what??? His store was making 35cents profit per gallon! Aron was disgusted. When we had the last big increase "for no apparent reason", I asked him to look at profit but he kept forgetting, but I'm bettin' it was more than 10cents :Coopwink:

And it's funny, when his store gets word to raise their prices, all the employees tell the customers when prices are going up and call all their friends and family members :clapping: Aron is the head of the "phone tree". He calls me, I call my Dad, Dad calls Sister Karen. Then we all race down to fill up the tank.

AnotherLiz
 
$2.85 yesterday. $2.79 today! I can afford a half gallon of milk, again!
 
Ours just hit $2.90 per gallon.

I'm just waiting to get slammed again.

Dave :surprise0785:
 
Yeah, brace yourself, the 4th of July is coming.
 
Bozodog! Aron came home from work this morning and announced gas is to go up at least 10cents on Monday.
He's now officially on third shift so we won't get so many advanced warnings anymore :(

AnotherLiz
 
Dh told me he actually saw gas with a 2 in the front yesterday, LOL. He's so use to the 3 that he almost passed out from shock. :harhar: Liz
 
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