
CORNWALL – Motorists in the city looking to fill up for the weekend are experiencing sticker shock this afternoon (Friday).
Prices, that were at $1.19 on average per liter on Thursday, suddenly jumped to around $1.35 a liter today for regular gasoline.
Dan McTeague, senior petroleum analyst with GasBuddy.com, tells Cornwall Newswatch, it was only a matter of time before prices went up because it’s costing retailers $1.22 a liter to buy their fuel.
“So that’s Gas Bar Shenanigans 101. Retailers are beating themselves up, trying to sell gasoline without losing market share, so they leave prices deliberately low. Everyone else to the east, north, west (of Cornwall) have all gone up. There’s been an increase over the top for the past several of days…you’re kind of an island unto yourself,” McTeague said.
“If you are a gas station owner today in Cornwall, you know full well it’s costing you $1.22 to buy your fuel. You can’t be selling it for $1.19 or you’re going to have your sanity checked,” McTeague told CNW.
McTeague said this game gas stations play, which he refers to as “gas bar shenanigans,” just does a “disservice to themselves” by “raising public cynicism.”
If you don’t need fuel right away, your best bet is to wait a couple of days. “What goes up, must come down. Outsmart them. If you can see gasoline still at $1.19 by all means buy it and hold off until Monday or Tuesday. It should drop by five or six cents a liter by then.”