Outrageous prices

[ACoyle]

I fealt horrible paying $130. 00 to fill the truck. Then I bought a 20 oz Sunkist orange which cost $2. 00. That is real close to $8. 00 per gallon. Wish I could drink diesel.

 

[JDiepstra]

Oh snap! What are you trying to start here, WWIII?!



That is a good point but I bet whoever makes Sunkist isn't profiting like big oil. And I bet they aren't getting the massive tax subsidies as well.



Also, you could have just gotten some "free" water out of the faucet if you wanted, and it would have been better for you.



But, Sunkist does taste better than water, and probably diesel too! I'd like a cold one right now!

 

[ACoyle]

Funny thing about tax subsities and profits. I don't get any of any size. Really makes no difference who does. I get paid, I buy things I need and things I want when I can. Consider the ingredients in Sunkist and what they must cost. Then think of $8. 00 a gallon. Then gusimate the percentage of profit. I am not / will not defend big oil. they are ripping us off, the whole world. We still have about the cheapest fuel cost in the world. They make so many $$$ on volume. More petrol sold then Sunkist.



Not trying to start a fight. Just a hard day at work and watching lots of $$ fly away.

 

[TboneMan]

Actually, the profit margin on the Sunkist was likely far greater than that on the fuel.



Typically, beverages are marked up substantially at convenience stores to offset the dismal amount of money the store makes on fuel. I'd bet the profit on that beverage was approaching 25%-30% (especially a single bottle purchase).



Profit on fuel for the oil companies is only in the 8% range. Our spending/driving habits have resulted in their huge profits. The governments are the ones truly profiting the most from fuel (taxes).

 

[JGrefenstette]

my solution to the beverage issue. go to walmart and buy the off brands. their usually pretty good believe it or not. or just wait till a big sale at the grocery store and stock up bigtime. that stuff never goes bad. i was driking a mountain dew code red the other day (not my favorite) but i looked at the expiration on the bottom. 3008!!!!! i kid you not! it was bold clear print. ill get a picture of it a post it for yall.



but yea diesel is $4. 40 here now. i better fill up while its cheap :-laf come may itll be ticklin $5. 00

 

[SHobbs]

I may be wrong but I think there will be a breaking point if prices keep going up. I don't see how the economy can hold up. Cities are loosing tax revenue due to folks not buying like they were, families trying to keep their heads above water, auto makers feeling the pinch, housing purchases in the dump and the mortgage industry in trouble not to mention the trucking and airline industries.



The question still remains,,,,When will enough be enough? If a crash does happen how bad will it be? Will we see another depression?

 

[AMink]

My wife paid almost $5/gal for milk at Safeway the other day! I went to Costco and bought the 2 gallon pack for $5. 49. WTH? Wish Costco sold diesel. :{ People are starting to realize that food is not getting any cheaper. Our grocery bills are up probably 20-30% relatively recently for the same general stuff we always buy. We (this country) cannot keep this up for a whole lot longer.

 

[JGrefenstette]

very true. not to mention that the value of the US dollar is gone down the toilet. were now equal with canada and the euro is ahead of us. somthings gotta give.

 

[MKinner]

very true. not to mention that the value of the US dollar is gone down the toilet. were now equal with canada and the euro is ahead of us. somthings gotta give.

Gotta love the federal reserve... .

 

[dpuckett]

Food is going up because our geniuses in Washington decided we should burn food instead of oil. $5 corn makes EVERYTHING related downstream go up, too. Think- corn (made into ethanol) feeds chickens, hogs, and cattle, so every product from them is going to go up as well. To say nothing of $13 soybeans. They are a supplement in many, if not most livestock feeds, so there we are again. And the farmers arent making a whole lot of money because the profits are going back into the tank of their tractors. It's a vicious cycle. We ARE too dependent on oil, but the EPA wont allow vehicles to get the MPGs they could get if they didnt have to meet such ridiculous emission standards. We had an 88 Mazda 626 with 105K that got 30/40 MPG hwy/city. Now 30hwy is a huge deal. Some gasser shoeboxes that got 50+ in the early 90s now only see mid 30s.



But, restaurants worldwide are still buying $15-40K smokers faster than my place of employment can keep up. Not to mention we are overbooked on the smaller smokers, too ($4-7K). Those are going to the high end residential market. You know, oil ececutives and politicians who do $50K kitchen remodels.



DP

 

[Mike Ellis]

Here's a chart from my Excel spreadsheet that tracks mileage and fuel expenses for my truck. This particular one covers from 2002 to present. The dark line is the price per gallon I have actually paid, and the red line is the Excel trendline (curve fit) to the data. The trendline is extended a few periods to show you where the data indicates that fuel prices are headed.



No signs of any reduction, and as you can see from the graph it has been a long, inexorable series of increases. This is tied to the increased competition for energy from China and India, and to the crushing devaluation of the dollar by our idiotic government policies.



A buck just doesn't go as far as it used to. Think about what the low wage earners are facing nowadays - in the late 70's an hour of minimum wage work would pay for about 6 gallons of diesel. In 2008, it will barely buy 2. Look around at the grocery store and you will notice that the same thing holds true for a lot of the other things the working family needs to survive. I don't see how people are getting by on the lower end of the wage scale...

 

[JGrefenstette]

payed $4. 19 today. $115 worth of it. was supposed to still be LSD though, so that was a plus. not quite as bad as ULSD. diesel intown where i work today was $4. 39. im just hoping it dosent get much over $5. 00 this summer.

 

[Missouri Mule]

You can still get Sweet corn here cheap! But Don't tell anyone it mite go out of site

 

[Mike Ellis]

I updated my chart to show April purchases to date. Look at the tail end of the blue line, and how steeply it has spiked since February. Looking back at the previous dates on the chart, we see that similar spikes happened when Katrina shut down refineries etc.

But since we haven't had any Katrinas in the last few months, what drove up that large spike? It's unlikely world-wide demand would peak that high that quickly. Either some event is constricting supply, or the dollar is losing value a lot faster than it used to. What's the deal?

 

[Vaughn MacKenzie]

Nice work on the graph Mike. I should do one myself. Speaking of hurricane Katrina, ever since it hit we've only had maybe a total of 4-5 weeks in this area where diesel cost less than $3. 00 per gallon! It spiked up and never went down after that, it did drop to $2. 78 once briefly.