We Need a Good, Old-Fashioned Gas War
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There was a very funny story on the Internet today that reminded me of when I was young.
When I was about 10 years old, I went on a series of road trips with my dad who was working for a TV station in far northern California.
The station had made an airtime sale to a gas station chain and it was my dad's job to go around to all the stations — I seem to remember they were Mobil gas stations — and take a picture of the owner.
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An ad would run on the air offering free beer mugs to customers who came in for a fill-up. I think gas was 18 or 19 cents a gallon then. Get a fill-up for $3 and get six beer mugs. And then a picture of the local Mobil dealer in your town would flash on the screen.
I visited every Mobil station north of San Francisco and south of the Oregon border.
So today's story was a flashback to those days because it describes what used to go on all the time.
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A gas station operator in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, decided to lower the price of gas — then at $2.89 a gallon — in order to bring in some of his competitor's customers from across the street. The competitor saw what was happening and lowered his price.
All of a sudden it was a good, old-fashioned gas war. It lasted seven hours and the price of gas got down to $2.36 a gallon — down 53 cents a gallon — all because of competition for customers.
This used to be the way things were with gas stations. Somebody raised his price. The other guy lowered his price.
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In the really old days they even gave stuff away if you came in to buy gas. You could get six beer mugs for a fill-up that was under $3 total. Now your fill-up is $50. You should get a couch with that or a dining room set... something big.
Am I starting to sound like Andy Rooney here? I am? OK, I'll quit.
That's My Word.
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