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An LA illustration of rising gas prices (Updated & Bumped)

Posted by B. Daniel Blatt at 6:45 pm - February 15, 2012.
Filed under: LA Stories

UPDATE: Just drove past (Wednesday 02/15/12 afternoon) the gas station at the corner of Beverly and Fairfax; the price of a gallon of regular climbed 2 cents to 3.95. (I had taken the picture Tuesday night at about 5:40 PM PST). Also, to note, I have long wondered about the difference in price between the two different gas stations — how the one at Fairfax and Olympic stays in business, charging a (substantially) higher price. My operating assumption is that Olympic has more east-west traffic than Beverly.

Reading on Instapundit that “Gas prices’ earliest-ever rise above $3.50 a bad sign for motorists” and seeing on Drudge that the GAS PRICE UP 83% DURING OBAMA, I decided to provide a little illustration of gas prices in Los Angeles.

These are the prices for gas at the Shell Station on Fairfax and Beverly:

Then, I drove just 1.27 miles south, staying on Fairfax and looking for the next Shell Station.

When I found it, I stopped to take another picture (at Fairfax and Olympic):

So, the price went up 90 cents in the 3 minutes it took me to drive just over 1.27 miles?

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22 Comments

  1. There is an error in the 2nd paragraph:

    These are the prices for gay at the Shell Station on Fairfax and Beverly

    Comment by Rattlesnake — February 15, 2012 @ 12:41 am - February 15, 2012

  2. Thanks, Rattlesnake! Fixed it. Interesting mistake (for me) to make!

    Comment by B. Daniel Blatt — February 15, 2012 @ 12:51 am - February 15, 2012

  3. Freudian Slip?

    It would’ve been easier, cheaper and involve less pollution if you’d used GasBuddy.com. ;-)

    Remember when ya’ll had their gas sticker over there on the right side?

    Comment by TGC — February 15, 2012 @ 1:44 am - February 15, 2012

  4. So, the price went up 90 cents in the 3 minutes it took me to drive just over 1.27 miles?

    Probably not since at that rate gas prices would be rising by $432 every single day (meaning that gas prices should be over half a million dollars per gallon if they rose at that rate for the entire Obama presidency), but what exactly was the point of this post anyway?

    Comment by Serenity — February 15, 2012 @ 3:44 am - February 15, 2012

  5. Actually, the point of the post, Serenity, was two-fold, one to point to the high price of gas in Los Angeles — and two, to wonder at the price differential in two gas stations barely a mile apart.

    Had planned a followup to address the second point. FYI, had long noticed difference between two stations, sometimes as much as a dollar and thought it would be fun to blog on it.

    Comment by B. Daniel Blatt — February 15, 2012 @ 3:46 am - February 15, 2012

  6. Funny that you titled it “An LA illustration of rising gas prices” and talked about rising gas prices for half of the post when your actual intention was to blog about how much gas costs in Los Angeles compared to other areas and the consistent difference in gas prices between two stations not that far from each other and not at all about rising gas prices. Clear as mud there.

    Comment by Serenity — February 15, 2012 @ 4:12 am - February 15, 2012

  7. Serenity, sorry, you missed my flip tone here.

    Comment by B. Daniel Blatt — February 15, 2012 @ 10:47 am - February 15, 2012

  8. and remember folks, as an average (looks like that high one is one of those flyers) of a gallon of gas:
    6 cents is profit to the station owner
    4 to 6 cents to the Distributor
    and at most 8 cents to the refiner

    So for the most part all the “evil” people make 20 cents a gallon total

    The Gov’t makes around 55 cents AT THE PUMP. They tax the hell out of it every step of the way so they make more than that off it.

    I mess with chemicals all day long. EVERYTHING is going up.
    The cost of saving lives is getting higher and higher.

    Comment by JP — February 15, 2012 @ 10:58 am - February 15, 2012

  9. Is it true that it is against the law to sell gas for less than wholesale? I was told that years ago when I worked at a gas station. If so, isn’t this partly responsible for high gas prices?

    Comment by Eddie — February 15, 2012 @ 12:06 pm - February 15, 2012

  10. Scarey! I had no idea that gas in L.A. (Beverly Fairfax) is that expensive. Here in El Salvador it is usually 60 cents higher than the average in the U.S. The price for regular is $4.23 for regular and $4.53 for super. (only two grades here). No matter where, why the price keeps rising has to be a mystery, considering that for the last couple of months the price for oil has fluctuated in a narrow range of $98.00 to $102. For all the money we pumped into Iraq, you´d think that they would open the spigot wide to help lower the price of crude. And with the supposed new government, oil from Libya was also predicited to help reduce the price of crude and lower the price at the pump.

    Comment by Roberto — February 15, 2012 @ 1:49 pm - February 15, 2012

  11. Gas was $3.45 for a few days then it went back to $3.39 in Alabama; it’s still too expensive for Obama to win re-election.

    Comment by Sebastian Shaw — February 15, 2012 @ 3:28 pm - February 15, 2012

  12. You do realize that energy prices cyclically rise thru April, right?

    Comment by rjligier — February 15, 2012 @ 4:12 pm - February 15, 2012

  13. #12: “You do realize that energy prices cyclically rise thru April, right?”

    Do they? Why is that?

    Comment by Sean A — February 15, 2012 @ 5:53 pm - February 15, 2012

  14. Gas was $3.45 for a few days then it went back to $3.39 in Alabama; it’s still too expensive for Obama to win re-election.

    Amusing timing there.

    Given Mr. Obama’s current approval ratings and consensus forecasts on the economy, he rates as about a 60 percent favorite to win the popular vote against Mitt Romney, with somewhat higher chances against any of the other Republicans running for the nomination. By contrast, in the November version of the model, Mr. Obama was an underdog to Mr. Romney, with a 40 percent chance of winning; the president’s approval ratings were about 6 points lower then and economic forecasts were somewhat more pessimistic.

    Comment by Serenity — February 15, 2012 @ 9:18 pm - February 15, 2012

  15. [...] Gas Update: Thanks, Obama! Gas Prices Up 83%! | The Lonely Conservative Also, this: An LA illustration of rising gas prices | Gay Patriot [...]

    Pingback by The Morning Links (2/16/12 ) | Lady Liberty 1885 — February 16, 2012 @ 6:45 am - February 16, 2012

  16. and two, to wonder at the price differential in two gas stations barely a mile apart.

    Sorta blasts the whole “speculators control the price of oil” liberal meme to hell, doesn’t it?

    Comment by TGC — February 18, 2012 @ 12:16 am - February 18, 2012

  17. Oil market participants have been closely watching events in Greece because of fears that the country’s debt could spur a broader economic crisis that could tear apart the euro zone, slow economic growth and curb demand for crude oil.

    The optimism over Greece sent the dollar edging lower against the euro. The ICE Dollar Index, which tracks the dollar against a basket of currencies, was recently down 0.2% to 79.223.

    A weaker dollar often strengthens crude prices by making the dollar-denominated commodity cheaper for holders of other currencies.

    http://www.rigzone.com/news/article.asp?a_id=115281

    Comment by TGC — February 18, 2012 @ 12:39 am - February 18, 2012

  18. Sorta blasts the whole “speculators control the price of oil” liberal meme to hell, doesn’t it?

    I’m not sure about that. First of all, I’m not sure who controls the bottom line price for gasoline, and if this is a liberal meme (or a conservative meme when Bush was president and gas prices fluctuated then). But it seems to me that the price difference is more of a free market decision, whether or not speculators control the bottom line price. It simply could be a case that the higher priced gas station is in a more optimal location. Or the owner decided to sacrifice customers in order to make more of a profit when the station does have customers.

    Where I live, no matter how high the price of gasoline is, there are always gas stations that consistently charge more than other stations. Of course, I avoid those stations when possible. But I’ll have to add that even in NJ, our high end gasoline prices are lower than the low end California gas prices. It’s nice that NJ does one thing right every once in a while.

    Comment by Pat — February 18, 2012 @ 12:54 pm - February 18, 2012

  19. [...] days ago, I posted a picture of the prices at the Shell station at the corner of Fairfax and Beverly in Los Angeles–one of the cheapest [...]

    Pingback by GayPatriot » LA gas prices up 14 cents in 4 days — February 19, 2012 @ 5:36 pm - February 19, 2012

  20. [...] days ago, I posted a picture of the prices at the Shell station at the corner of Fairfax and Beverly [...]

    Pingback by GayPatriot » LA gas prices up 14 cents in 4 days | Buzz.100wizard.com — February 21, 2012 @ 9:07 am - February 21, 2012

  21. [...] Beverly (one of the least expensive places to fill up in Hollywood): A reminder of the same spot 8 days previously: That’s about a 7% increase — in just 8 days! Comments [...]

    Pingback by GayPatriot » Gas up 26 cents in 8 days — February 23, 2012 @ 1:18 am - February 23, 2012

  22. [...] weeks ago yesterday, one could buy a gallon of regular at the Shell Station on Fairfax & Beverly in Los Angeles (one of the cheapest …. Last night, the price was 40 cents higher: Comments [...]

    Pingback by GayPatriot » Gas up 40 cents in 2 weeks — February 29, 2012 @ 1:55 am - February 29, 2012

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