It’s not unusual for communities have a shop locally campaign,
but I am thinking Mount Pleasant is running a shop out of town campaign, led by
the local gas stations. Tonight gas was 12 cents cheaper in New London Iowa a small
town east of here. Now I realize when you do the math you can’t really drive
the 7 miles and make money but you can do something else. We decided to eat
supper at the Short Stop in New London and have the best tenderloin in the state. Not only
did the Mount Pleasant gas stations miss a sale but now a local restaurant did
as well. My intentions are to buy my gas out of town whenever I can and when I
do I will buy other things out of town too. Now to make matters even worse Mount
Pleasant misses out on the sales tax as well. I mean 12 cents and only 7 miles
away, I still smell a rat. One would think that eventually the local merchants
would put some pressure on those who price fix in town.
I have had these same thoughts, wondering why local gas is higher than elsewhere. It is so tempting to drive elsewhere for gas, and as you said, buy from other merchants.
ReplyDeleteI do try to get my gas at HyVee with a receipt so i can get a few cents off per gallon (and if i can do it on Tuesday, i get "Geezer Gas"...). But all that is an inconvenience, too.
Why don't the merchants and gas stations decide to have the lowest prices in SE Iowa and draw shoppers HERE!