Well the national news is really pissing me off reporting about the gas shortage. They keep trying to lay the blame on the consumers “topping off”.
This is bullshit. We have stations here that have not had a fuel delivery for two weeks. Even most stations that have received fuel have received less than 50% of what they normally would in the same time period.
We have had several days where not a single gas station in the county has had gas.
When stations do receive gas, they are imposing limits of $20-$25.
But the PR machine keeps telling us it’s “our fault”.
Ralph
Ralph, SOME people DO have a hoarding mentality. Did you ever notice that just the forecast of POSSIBLE bad weather (which can be as little as 1/4" of snow in some places) seems to make a LOT of people suddenly hungry for french toast and get the trots? (Why else would there be no bread milk eggs or toilet paper to be found?).
Back in the 70’s there was news of a beef shortage. Then suddenly there really was NO beef to be found on the shelves. People who do that urban archeology stuff at the dumps can pinpoint things that was put there a few weeks after the “shortage” because there are literally TONS of steaks and roasts that people hoarded, then threw out when it went bad…
Right before Ike hit Texas people here in PA were really worried about the prices going up and possible shortages from the crap on the news. We had LINES of old ladies wanting fill-ups-- most in the $10-15 range. One woman’s car held $2.17… the fact that it cost her MORE in gas to come to the station to get gas than she’d saved even if it jumped 25c didn’t occur to her. The result was for 3 days we did about 175% of normal business… then the price DIDN’T go up for over a week, but we were STILL dead, because people didn’t need gas…then it started all over again when the price of oil jumped the other day.
More of a self-fulfilling prophecy than actual lying
Many people hoard.
Not the case here. The stations have limited purchases to $20-$25 now since before Ike. Many won’t let you fill a gas can. They just haven’t been bringing the gas. I know one station that has not had a delivery in 2 weeks.
One of the major sellers with about 16 pumps ran out last Sunday. They didn’t get gas until Saturday. Six days for a station that usually gets at least one truck daily, sometimes two.
Ralph
I noticed that in Tampa, FL about a week ago. Quite a few stations were out of gas. I did notice on my last trip this week, gas prices seem to have gone down. Last week they were a buck higher than diesel.
Well…there’s hoarding goin on here…I had no gas around me for over 4 days…I go to work (7 miles) and stop at the grocer on the way home (in route, no deviations)…with the mini-mansion explosion that has taken place here over the past few years, and the emergence of all the Hum V’s (notice how that “V” points down, not up) I get enraged when those things pull in to fill up and they have MASSIVE portables in the boot they “need to fill up” too…not to mention the lake boat traffic that wants gas too…I normally fill up about every 10-14 days…I had 100 miles left this weekend, but decided I better get it while the gettin was good…gas trucks came in Sunday morning it appears…by night time all the gas was gone…where’s “our local government”? No rationing, no nothing…when this started they said Atlanta area had 72 days of gas supply…that was less than two weeks ago… 
…what happened to “social responsibilities”?..Oh yeah…we’ve become a “society of entitlement”…I forgot…
It’s the Code of the West, you must do unto others, before them others do unto you!
We heard of the shortages and paid $3.199 a gallon on the east side of KC. Go figure.
We ran out this afternoon… probably because the manager didn’t ORDER it on time, rather than any shortage.
Then again, the morning guy came back in PI$$ED because he tried to cash his paycheck at the bank the thing was written on…and there wasn’t enough in the account to cover it – I hope mine clears.
Mik said:I've had that happen, before. I got in the habit of cashing my check at the boss's bank. Saved a whole lot of NSF fees. The money was always there the next day.
Then again, the morning guy came back in PI$$ED because he tried to cash his paycheck at the bank the thing was written on...and there wasn't enough in the account to cover it -- I hope mine clears.