the new gas game

Ah, supply and demand. It’s the justification companies use when they’re fucking you without your consent and you’re telling them to stop while they say “hell no”. Gas companies have long played this game in Canada, with prices starting high on Friday afternoon and dropping over the weekend. It was not uncommon before all the silliness that you’d see a 5 to 7 cent per litre fluctuation over the course of the week.

There’ve been numerous probes by various levels of government, and they’ve always resulted with the conclusion that it’s just market forces at work. There is no collusion amongst the three major and two or three minor players in the Canadian market. That’s the theory, anyways, and if we foud ourselves needing gas on Friday or Saturday we’d walk away from the pumps with our ass hurting a little more than normal.

I’ve noticed that the rules have recently changed. Some genius has obviously taken a look at when during the day most people fill up. I’m sure it won’t surprise you to know that most people fill up first thing in the morning, before their day gets going. The gas companies have stumbled on to this, and nowhave modified their pricing strategy somewhat.

Over the last couple weeks I’ve noticed that the price of a litre of gas can vary 5-10 cents per litre over the course of a day. It has been this way since gas dropped to the $1/l range and below. Currently gas starts at around 90 to 93 cents/litre at 6am, and starts to drop around 11am reaching a low of around 83 cents/litre by midnight and staying there until 6 where, all of a sudden, everyone’s price increases back to 90 to 93 cents.

But it’s all about supply and demand, not taking advantage of when people typically buy gas (and yes, I understand you could make the argument that it is supply and demand at work, but I’d argue a fair bit with you on that being a technicality of scope).

Fuckers.