We, like the rest of you, drive pass gas stations everyday. Lately, it has been a more pleasant experience since the price of gas has fallen in the last month or two. We do not like to pay $50 for a full tank of gas.
But gas, like most commodities, is subject to market pressures. And markets are the first love of economists. When I took Economics 101, the first example of market pressure had to do with gas stations. If one gas station lowers its price, the one closest by will probably lower prices as well.
Well, this does not apply to a gas station near us. For the last month or more, the price of gas at this station has been much higher than the price at the next gas station (and all stations, really). We drove past it the other day and the price was $2.55 a gallon. Across the street it was $2.18. Who would buy gas that was almost $0.40 more a gallon than the place across the street? How does that gas station stay in business?
It is an economic oddity, if I have ever seen one; a gas station impervious to market pressure.
Is this the kind of thing that would keep an economist up at night?
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