Gas prices (Knoxville, Seymour: home, living, delivery)

[mjb62676]

Originally Posted by knoxgarden

It was caused by the news media running around shouting "the sky is falling, the sky is falling!"
This is what was cited in an AP story on the "shortage" in Knoxville:

In Knoxville, Tenn., account executive Sharon Cawood said "one of our local gasoline chains called a local TV station Thursday, sometime during the day and said, 'We're running out of gas. We're going up 80 cents a gallon... It caused a major scare.
"By the time it hit 6 o'clock news and 11 o'clock news it was like snow was falling and milk and bread were flying off the shelves."
Larry Daugherty, a talk radio host Knoxville's WQBB, said a steady stream of calls began Friday morning from people perplexed about price discrepancies.
People reported gas was selling for as low as $3.49 a gallon in some spots, and $5 at another.
"People are outraged," Daugherty said. "Everyone is having a hard time understanding all of this."
Such market fundamentals could last for another few weeks, depending on how quickly Texas and Louisiana refineries shuttered by Ike can come back on line. "It's a mess," Kloza said."

Bingo...and people rushing out to "fill up before prices go up" just compounded the problem. Now, none of the stations around us have gas. I'm not even sure where I can GET gas thanks to everyone freaking out.

[hiknapster]

Originally Posted by mjb62676

Bingo...and people rushing out to "fill up before prices go up" just compounded the problem. Now, none of the stations around us have gas. I'm not even sure where I can GET gas thanks to everyone freaking out.

The big rumor is that Weigel's are the one that called the station.

[little nell]

are there any lines for gas and are stations running out of gas?
thanks for any help.

[mjb62676]

Originally Posted by hiknapster

The big rumor is that Weigel's are the one that called the station.

The article in the KNoxville paper didn't help much.

But, more than anything, so many people going and getting gas whether they needed it or not was the biggest problem, in my opinion.

[hiknapster]

Originally Posted by little nell

are there any lines for gas and are stations running out of gas?
thanks for any help.

I didn't see any lines. I saw mostly $4.99. The Asheville Highway exit had $4.02 and $4.04 at the Marathon and Exxon.

The "no casino" guy in Fountain City did not gouge. He sold the gas at regular price but he is all out, right now.

I will always remember that guy.

[Tex43]

I want to sign the petition, but I don't live in TN and the signature page had a note that only local residents were eligible signatories. I've got a guy working for a client in Knoxville for a couple of days. The gas prices are killing the project -- he'll be lucky to make the trip break even at this rate. And he has no choice about not driving to protest: he must go where the client is, and that's all there is to it.

By the way, here in the DFW area, we have had lots of evacuees adding to the gas-buying public for days now. They all arrive with empty tanks, desperate to refuel. So demand is much higher than usual. Guess what: we're not out of gas. Before the H. Ike rush began on Friday, I filled up at $3.45/gallon. The highest price reported was $4.09, close to noon on Saturday, a couple of hours before Ike was supposed to really cause problems here. Now it is Sunday. The cheapest gas in town (in a rather costly suburb) was $3.39 at 1:15pm today. The most expensive gas today was $3.89, reported at 3:14pm. So the excess demand argument for TN doesn't seem to hold up. Sure, we're closer to the refineries, but it's not like they're operating for us but shut down for the rest of the country. Shut down is shut down, period. And spiked demand was very real here. So yes, I think you're suffering at the hands of profiteers. I'd sign that petition on your behalf if I could. My price information came from Gas Prices - Find Cheap Gas Prices in.

[little nell]

thank you! we are headed to Knoxville from Asheville Tuesday to the UT Small Animal Clinic and just want to make sure we can get back!

[quote=hiknapster;5264926]I didn't see any lines. I saw mostly $4.99. The Asheville Highway exit had $4.02 and $4.04 at the Marathon and Exxon.

[mjb62676]

It does seem odd that this seems to be one of the only areas to see a 1.40 spike in gas prices in ONE DAY.

Of course, they can charge what they want if everyone is gonna come and run them dry.

[dylaust]

Same thing happened here in Georgia. Gas is 4.70 here, up from $3.50. Stations were saying they couldn't get anymore gas, yet later that day there were tankers filling them back up. I live in a small community, but I heard that prices were over $5 in some of the larger cities around here. It really is rediculous that these stations can get away with this.

[Gretzky_99]

Man, Tennessee needs some anti-gouging laws like Florida. After we got hammered in 2004, they passed some laws against charging more than 10-15% above cost during a crisis. Right now there are over 100 gas stations under investigation for price gouging, and we are still at 3.8X for gas. You guys are getting shafted. Hopefully, they will get it worked out.