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What would you be willing to endure to fill up with gas for just $0.97 per gallon? Throngs of drivers showed up to rival gas stations in Powder Springs, Georgia, as they aggressively undercut each other’s prices for regular gas last week, eventually prompting police to shut the whole thing down. And you thought the Costco line was brutal.
Rival Amoco and Sunoco stations on Marietta Street were responsible for the kerfuffle last week. The very dedicated staff at the Amoco station reportedly adhered to a policy that required them to price their fuel five cents lower than its nearest rival’s—in this case, the Sunoco, which responded with its own price cuts. This race to the bottom sparked a race to cash in as drivers took note of tumbling prices.
“We were here this afternoon, it was $2.54. Then it went down again. Then it went down again. When we pulled in, it was $1.44, $1.39,” one driver told WSBTV-2.
Not a prank: Drivers pay as little as 97 cents a gallon in gas war between 2 stations
Word spread quickly, and so did the congestion. As the gridlock worsened, police shut down access to both stations. Once traffic dispersed, police allowed customers back into the lots. Those who were patient enough to stick around were rewarded with $1.14 gasoline. It didn’t last, of course. Both stations reset their prices by the next day.
The chaos was obviously worth it for some locals. With regular fuel still averaging nearly $4.00/gallon in many parts of the country, more and more drivers are willing to take detours to take advantage of a cheap offer. Some of those offers, as it turns out, have been too good to be true.
Law enforcement said to let them know if the stations plan another round of price cuts. Presumably, they want to provide crowd control—but with these prices, they might just want to beat the crowd.
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Byron is an editor at The Drive with a keen eye for infrastructure, sales and regulatory stories.
