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I watch the price of gasoline fairly closely.
The problem with the concept of "cost of gasoline" is that it varies by as much as $.50 per gallon, depending on which side of the street you are on. Sometimes each street corner has that much variation at each store. The other day, Arco was at $2.95, Shell was at $3.45, and Chevron was at $3.40. Meanwhile Costco was at $2.70 or thereabouts. Each station operator drives the competition daily, and the cost of trucking and the wholesale cost can fluctuate several times per day.
Once the gas is in the ground, the operator of each station has the ability to price gas, at least in California, according to his market. That still allows a lot of leeway, as you can see.
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