When I went shopping up at Costco yesterday, the gas station was shut down with a sign posted that basically said, "Due to Hurricanes Gustav and Ike, and TS Fay, we can't buy enough gas to keep the station open. Sorry any inconvenience, but we’re closed until further notice." To my mind, that doesn't bode well for the near-future supply. I really hope that we, finally, get serious about protecting our existing energy infrastructure (right, wrong, or other, we need it, and we need it working until we get something else.) However, that needs to be followed rapidly by a serious movement develop other sources. I was really heartened to see that Pickins is advertizing on TV now; it's short blurb about the guts of the plan and then a URL to the rest of it.
once in a while our gas station runs out of gas all the time. #1 reason is that the employee forgot to phone in a delivery, and there is never any press about it! #2 reason employee looked at red flashing light LOW FUEL on the black box and ignored it
LOL....sometimes you gotta wonder how people like that keep jobs.... I'd tend to agree with you if it weren't for the fact that, to my knowledge, this Costco has only closed one time before. That was right after Wilma. They had gas, they just didn't have any electricity to get it out of the storage tank with.
What they really mean is that they can't buy gas cheap enough to make it worthwhile to put in their stations.
i wish someone would explain to me how the gas station even gets charged for their gas in the first place. all i see are invoices with just the amount pumped with no indication of what your cost is. and gas prices flucate daily. and all the gas station owner does to actually set the price is just to go to other gas stations nearby and then change his signs to their formula and what the other nearby stations are currently selling thiers for. if the cost of the gasoline is based on the price you paid plus markup, then it must really make some complicated invoices and billing statements when you are purchasing 5-9000 gallons every two days
It is troublesome hearing about a station that's closed due to lack of gas... Lets hope it's an anomaly (either that or we're going to be in a real tight spot the next few months!). I also just heard about the power outages in Ohio, PA, Kentucky, etc... My mom in Ohio says she was told she won't have power back for a full week! And not too far away, one of the local elementary schools had part of its roof ripped off... You really don't expect to have these sorts of problems from Hurricanes when you live so far inland!
This is due to the locals getting smarter. The vast majority of Coastal residents have figured out that getting the vehicles filled up is one of the most important hurricane preps. Obviously this causes temporary closures. I'm totally guilty. I realize that after a hurricane that: 1) Loss of electrical power after the hurricane closes gas stations 2) The price surges will occur after the hurricane 3) If I need to bolt, I need to have the car filled at bolt time. No surprise that there are many gas stations caught off guard....better them than me.
I agree to some degree. I'm cerainly guilty of making sure that everying this gassed up before a storm; heck that's SOP around here for everyone. I did think about the "caught off guard" and the "what we mean is that we can't buy it cheap enough" theories. Maybe I'm assuming too much competence on the part of their employees, but something seems amiss.
