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The price at the purnps: Why do local gas prices seem
to be out of step with other
areas of the province?
By Adrian Harte
T-Aditor
EXETER - Town council ex-
pressed some official concern over
something that has had local mo-
torists complaining about for
months - higher gasoline prices
▪ than in surrounding communities.
"Exeter seems to have the most
consistent gas prices in the area,"
said councillor Dave Urlin at last
Tuesday evening's meeting.
"High," agreed councillor Ben
Hoogenboom.
Urlin, who commutes to London,
said he wondered why the town's
prices have been consistently over
56 cents a litre in past weeks, when
Lucan has seen prices in the 52 -
cent range, and London around 50.
Mayor Bruce Shaw agreed with
Urlin's observations and added gas
prices on Highway 401 have been
seen at 49 cents recently.
Urlin suggested that local drivers
are perhaps "a little too con-
servative" in their willingness to
pay the higher prices.
Even the Association of Mu-
nicipalities of Ontario is concerned
about gasoline prices, said reeve
Bill Mickle. Northern municipal-
ities have seen prices well above 60
cents, and inconsistent pricing pol-
icies are being complained about
by municipal leaders across the
province.
Almost immediately after council
made its comments last Tuesday
evening, prices began to fall in Ex-
eter, first dropping to 54 cents per
litre, and then to 52 -cent range by
the weekend. Prices in London,
however, rose to above -54 cents at
the same time, but dropped again
by Monday afternoon.
In other centres, prices hovered
around the 54 -cent mark on the
weekend, with dips to the 49 -cent
point in Flamborough and 50 cents
near Brantford.
The Times -Advocate asked sev-
eral of the local fuel dealers about
the current trends in the gasoline
market. Some declined comment
and referred all inquiries to a head
office, where no-one was available
for comment. Others spoke openly
about the price fluctuations, but
upon reconsidering what they were
saying was being written down,
quickly declared all comments off
the record.
In a business in which prices are
displayed on large boards right out
"It's a
very weird
market....
...People
just think
it'sabig
price fixing
thing."
front for customers and competitors
to compare, and in which com-
petitive edges are measured in
tenths of a cent, theirs is not an un-
expected, reaction.
Others, however, spoke guard-
edly about the prices at the pumps,
but admitted one thing is clear: the
days of seeing Exeter gas prices
consistently cheaper than London
are gone. Tight margins on profits,
a fierce London market, and gas
pricing zones will probably keep
Exeter out of the London gas wars
for the time being.
As one station manager pointed
out, most of the station owners who
waged the price war with London
in the early to mid-1980s have
since got out of the business.
At the Petro Canada station at the
south end of Exeter, Dennix-Payn•
said that his is often the first stop
for motorists running low on fuel
who didn't fill up in London or Lu -
can. If his price is higher, there are
those who are quick to complain.
The savings are more perceived
than real. A four -cent per litre dis-
crepancy in prices, only adds up to
two -dollars on a 50 -litre fill -up.
For his delivery area, Payne's sta-
tion is the first one north of London
in a new, northern pricing region.
Add to that the price wars amongst
London stations, and motorists no-
tice the difference on the pumps.
"Our competition isn't in town,"
said Payne. "It's in Lucan and Lon-
don."
When asked why Exeter's pump
prices managed to stay above 56
dents a litre for unleaded for over a
Despite the variable na-
ture of the gasoline
price market, Exeter's
price for regular un-
leaded remained stable
at over 56 cents for a
month...
...until Friday, when they
dropped into the 52 -cent
range.
Other prices in the area
on Friday include Grand
Bend...
month, Payne said it had to do
mare with delivery prices than with
vacation traffic.
Now that the 56 -cent high was
broken last week, will 52 -cent pric-
es become the norm? Payne said
there's no telling, and depends
mostly on what his competition
docs.
Tim Robinson at the Pioneer gas
bar said he has no say in the gas-
oline price himself. The company
only n,:.%es sure to keep pace with
the other stations in town. t�
"It's a very weird market," said
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Robinson. "There's basically two
places in town that control it...well,
not control it, but set the pace."
Robinson described the London
gasoline market's movements as
"incredible", and said it results
from independent stations trying to
put pressure on the major com-
panies, while at the same time be-
ing pressured into extremely tight
margins by those suppliers.
Exeter, he said, doesn't see that
kind of freedom of movement in
pricing.
"It's really not the way it used to
...Lucan...
be," said Robinson. "You used to
be able to go down a cent a litre
and no one would care," but he
adds that today, each,'Station meas-
ures its price margin in tenths of a
cent.
And, of course, a two-tenths of a
cent price difference at the pumps
adds up to a dime on that 50 -litre
fill -up.
"People just think it's a big price-
fixing thing," said Robinson, but he
insists that hardly anybody is mak-
ing big money on gasoline sales
anymore.
...and London.
"There was a time when you
could make a good dollar on a
truckload of fuel," he explained,
but said nowadays a station owner
can easily lose a money by buying
a truckload only to see the pump
price drop the next day.
He paints a picture of a business
in which prices don't go up and
down on a whim, but out of ne-
cessity to stay alive in a cut-throat
market. Gasoline sales, said Rob-
inson, have changed so much in the
past five years "it's a totally new
hall game".
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