Fuel: Listed Price not always the best.

[Slash]

Went down to liverpool to have my new exhaust fitted yesterday, I noticed the price of fuel was 1.29c/L
Later that night I decided to test out how the exhaust was during highway runs...

Went down to my local BP on Sunnyholt Road, (The same one you might have seen on TV with the happy hour fuel prices a couple of years back) Listed price 1.30c/L
Price for Ultimate was 1.55.7c/L.. filled up and went on my way..
200km laters, decided to top up on the Abbots Road BP price listed 1.31c/L.. I was a little shocked to see the price of Ultimate at 1.47c/L

I had thought that all Petrol stations (of the same type BP/Shell) sell petrol at similar prices, within a few cents of each other.

Anyone else notice anything like this?

[ofey]

The list price on the board is for normal 91 unleaded.
Normal Practice.

You are filling Ultimate (premium). So usually 10-15cents more.
Nothing surprising.
Adjusted by the gas station according to their whim and fancy

You mean you didn't know?

[Slash]

I understand that Ofey, My question is related to the difference in Ultimate prices.. These stations are only 5km from each other.
7c is quite large difference.

[Slash]

I always thought that fuel prices would be only a few cents different from petrol station to petrol station.

Station A Unleaded: 1.30c/L
Station A Premium: 1.40c/L

Station B Unleaded: 1.32c/L
Station B Premium: 1.42c/L

7c seem rather large to me.

[dannyboi]

If you drive along the Hume between Liverpool and Bankstown, you'd see the changing petrol prices over about 20 km, which suggests it's up to the individual owners/managers and local competition.
Woolies/Caltex at Bass Hill is usually cheaper than the one at Lansvale, despite both falling under the same brand and are relatively close to one another.

Taking that into account, the same would occur for Premium and Diesel. The prices can vary pretty significantly and also don't have to be as competitive as E10 and Unleaded.

[Dire]

You didn't accidently see 95 at one station and 98 at another?

[Slash]

^ I never make that mistake... Very particular about the fuel that goes in my car... Plus once you select the pump, all other prices disappear.

a local Evo 9 owner mentioned he got ripped 25c above normal unleaded at the same station...

Guess its just not a good 98 station to go too.

[JaCe]

I think what Sachin meant was he assumed the margin/difference between 91 and 98 would be consistent between servos.

[The X]

Discounting really depends on the cluster of surrounding competing servos.
I'll give you an insight on how things work...
Years ago (mid 90's) I was a duty manager for an organisation that did paging (before mobiles could do SMS and were widespread) and virtual receptionist services.
Anyway all/most of the major petrol companies had services with us, where their affiliated servos could call through and provide "intelligence" to head office of what the pricing was of petrol from competing surrounding servos (some servo owners would go for a decent drive up their main drag to get this info) - they'd provide this intel during a request for "price support" - basically "the guys across the road have undercut us, we need you to authorise a rebate so we can compete", and so Head Office would decide if and when their affiliate servo would be granted a rebate and for how long or if not at all depending on demand and what the other competing servo were charging.

So there in, explains part of the reasons why you see some servos of the same brand with different prices as you drive along in different areas.
Just depends on how much demand for the product there is and how busy the competition is, in surrounding or close to that servo is.

I wouldn't be surprised if things still work the same, but i guess these days of the internet, servos would supply this thru a web portal or something similar..

[mitch_vrx]

it all depends on the area aswell north sydney has aslways seemed to have cheaper petrol than those places out here in mount druitt or penrith