I had an extended drive planned for early the next morning, so I decided to fill up with gas later at night when it wouldn’t be busy. I was low on fuel and with the rising costs, I decided to spend my “fuel perks” – earned at the grocery store – to knock the price of fuel down to something less insane than $4.23 a gallon.
I mean, I know there’s a war on, but seriously…
I pulled into the gas station, pulled up my “loyalty card” on my phone, and scanned it.
And I got a message back:
“Sorry, we’re unable to redeem your perks at this time, but you’ll still earn perks on this fill up for future transactions.”
WTF?
Irritated, I looked at the gas station across the street. $4.25 a gallon. I considered driving around to find a cheaper price, but that way lies madness.
So, I proceeded to get some fuel – though I didn’t fill all the way up.
I left, fuming.
When I next needed to fill up, I saw the gas station nearest to my house was at $4.75. I was resigned to paying both an arm and a leg, but at a different gas station near McDonald’s where I stopped for lunch it was $3.89. That gas station is a good place to get your credit number skimmed and I’m pretty sure you can get scurvy just by going inside, but I stopped and filled it up.
These prices make no sense and they aren’t meant to. Just another squeeze on the consumer.
And the yo-yo-ing of prices makes us happy to have found a “lower” price – even though it’s vastly higher than it should be or was even a few months ago.