Want proof that competition is healthy? In what is probably a one-horse town in eastern New Mexico called Clovis, one could buy gas at 49 cents a gallon! That's right, 49 cents. It seems that the whole thing was the result of a price war between two local convenience stores, with one determined to always remain at 3 cents a gallon less that the other, and the other apparently just got tired of it and decided to play the one-upmanship (or is that downmanship?) game. Talk about taking a thing too far. By Tuesday of this week, both stores were selling gas at prices below wholesale costs.
The whole thing exploded when one dropped the price to 99 cents a gallon and the other just dropped the floor out! Over 200 vehicles lined up, blocking stores and a fire station before the local Fire Marshall asked the two stores if there was anything they could do "reasonably to remedy the situation". Of their own accord (and because of the terrible traffic), they raised the prices again, one store to $2.86 and the other to $2.83 per gallon (there's that 3 cents again).
I thought, wasn't it nice that they were willing to lose a little money to get the customer?
So, where's the beat down? Well, the beat down is in that nearly 3 dollar price in the first place. I know they were both losing money, but hey, if the businesses want our money these days, maybe they ought to take a turn at being the ones to feel a little pinched for a change, eh?
OK, so I knew it couldn't last, of course, but it sure must have been nice while it lasted, unless of course you were the one sitting there for three hours, burning up seven dollars worth of gas right before the price went back up. (ouch).
Now I'm wondering, what can we do to set some of our local stations against each other like this. I'm reminded of a Looney Tunes short in which Bugs Bunny found himself in France, being chased by two opposing cooks, both of whom were trying to get him into their recipe. What he did was to whisper some instigating words into their ears to set them against each other. Maybe we could try that, say to Station A, "Hey, if I were you I wouldn't let that Station B beat my gas price!", then say the same to Station B, and so on. Down go the prices, right?

Oh, well, one can dream.