The Poor Old Consumer Suffers Again

[chrissa1]

After having 3 petrol stations in our town, we have only had one for years and so paid the prices they dictated. We were up to £144/litre long before the rest of the country.

A new petrol station has just opened and everyone thought, great, a bit of competion...the prices will fall...... Wrong.

I asked about the pricing when I was putting in £20 this morning and she said, "oh yes, we decided that a price war would not be beneficial for anybody", meaning them!!!!

Makes you mad doesn't it?

[Traci66]

£144 a litre, that's a bit steep.

[tonyav]

Where do you live chrissa, that sounds expensive to me. So now you have two of them fleecing you.

[mrsmaveric]

lol im sure chrissa meant £1.44 a litre...i must say that is expensive its currently £1.31 [petrol not diesel] here in a rain sodden stoke on trent...

[Answerprancer]

I think petrol stations in remote areas charge more 'because they can' - it's a classic example of opportunism.

[chrissa1]

Oops, sorry. Yes I meant £1.44. It's £1.38/litre now.

[jno]

check before you buy, there may still be others within range of you

http://www.petrolprices.com/

[commoner]

Surely you drive past petrol stations on your travels which offer much better value than that...why not just pop in and top up or at least put a few litres in as you go?

Prices around my home vary from 1.30 t0 140 and I want to scream when I see cars at the pumps with the highest prices...If we all shopped around prices would have to come down some..IMO.

[tonyav]

I think commoner has hit the nail on the head there.

[flump1]

Here on the Isle of Wight the shops have a captive customer base and therefore prices are higher over here . I have visitors at present and the price of fuel is more expensive here as is their favourite take out food !!

[tonyav]

I am afraid you can't do much about your situation then flump.

[chrissa1]

I know that there is cheaper petrol around but the nearest Asda or Morrisons selling petrol are at least 15 miles from me. I think I've worked out that it is not worth it to have a round trip of 30 miles, to fill up and do my shopping there. There's a Sainsburys and a Morrisons here within 1 mile of me, so it just doesn't make economical sense.

It would be nice to see a garage that wants to make petrol a bit more affordable here.

[jno]

their first priority will be to make enough profit to keep themselves in business, Chrissa. After all - look at what happened to the other two stations you used to have.

[chrissa1]

I take your point jno but we're talking about the Co-op and the Spar chain here, not some small private garage.