Recent Gas Prices

Here's the recent price movement at the Costco near my home in Sandy, Utah:

(price per gallon, all for 85 octane - we're at 4500 feet here)

Feb 14: $1.999
Feb 28: $2.069
Mar 19: $2.309
Mar 27: $2.399
Apr 09: $2.539
Apr 11: $2.549
Apr 20: $2.639
Apr 25: $2.739
May 10: $3.049
May 23: $3.129

That's a $1.13 increase in 98 days, or 56%.

Gas Pricing

No, not the cost of gas, that's been done to death.

What I don't understand is why gas prices are expressed to the tenth of a cent. Anybody have a 0.1-cent piece? I don't. If I buy 1.000* gallon of gas at $1.949 will I get 5.1 cents in change? No, I won't. They will keep my 0.1 cents.

We're all getting ripped off to the tune of a penny every 10 gallons. Wikipedia pegs gas consumption at 360 million gallons per day. That's $360,000 a day taken from consumers, or $131.4 million a year.

*yes, the pump measures to thousandths of a gallon. That's 0.128 ounces (volume), 0.00625 pounds, 2.8 grams or 0.19 cents. I'm impressed with the resolution of the pump, but it seems like overkill to me.

Gas Bubble

Filled up the Civic yesterday at Costco and paid $1.969/gallon. Last time I filled up (November 7) it was $2.309. I think it's safe to say that's the largest drop between fill-ups I've ever seen - 34 cents in 14 days - almost 15%.

This is the lowest it's been since March this year, but is still 12 cents higher then last year - 6.5% higher.