Gas is expensive. I think you’d have to be a 2-year-old living on an island by yourself with pieces of coconut stuck in your ears and a monkey holding its hand over your eyes to not know that.

But for as much as people complain about the financial hardship, that doesn’t stop them from turning off the brain button.

On my way home from work there must be a dozen gas stations. Most of them are spread out, with several of them having no competitors for half a mile. Then there are the groups where one is just a few blocks from another, or in one case, practically on the same lot.

That is the site of some serious not-paying-attention-ness. The stations are divided by a very small street, which again makes them basically on the same lot. Driving home from work the other day, I noticed a few cars parked at one
station, and just one car at the other.

There are many possible reasons for the disparity. Those drivers may simply like that station better. It’s the second one they’d come to, so if they suddenly were reminded by the first station that they needed gas they would be more able to stop in time for the second one. Or perhaps the price was just a penny better, drawing in a crowd from the station next door. It’s in that last situation that you wonder why the guy next door doesn’t just drop his gas by a cent and decide to compete.

But what if the difference was more like 24 cents? That’s right, 24 cents. Station A was selling for $4.20 with Station B offering the same product at $3.96. Um, no-brainer right? Well not for that one guy happily pumping away at Station A. He didn’t appear to be driving a Hummer or a Mercedes, so I can’t assume he just has loads of extra cash maybe to burn.

Perhaps he just felt bad for the guy at Station A who probably didn’t have a single customer to keep him company all day. Poor guy. Maybe I should have swung in for some ridiculously overpriced fuel action. Maybe next time. Or I
could just spend those extra few bucks on something useful, like a couple of Cheesy Gordita Crunches. Mmmm.