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Young Brunette Girl Strips At The Old Gas Station
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In the United States, the states of California and Hawaii typically have the highest gasoline prices, while the lowest prices can be found in oil producing states like Oklahoma and Texas. In Canada, prices are typically highest in the provinces of British Columbia and Quebec, and the lowest in the oil-producing province of Alberta. The provinces of Prince Edward Island (PEI), Newfoundland and Labrador, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia have instituted gasoline price regulation, which is intended to protect small rural gas stations from low profit margins due to low volume.
Individual gas stations in the United States have little if any control over gasoline prices. The wholesale price of gasoline is determined according to area by oil companies which supply the gasoline, and their prices are largely determined by the world markets for oil. Individual gas stations are unlikely to sell gasoline at a loss, and the margin—typically between 7 and 11 cents a U.S. gallon—that they make from gasoline sales is limited by the fact that the market is highly competitive. A gas station which charges significantly more than the wholesale price will lose customers to other gas stations. Because of this, most gas stations sell higher-margin food products inside their convenience stores.
Even with oil market fluctuations, prices for gasoline in the United States are among the lowest in the industrialized world; this is principally due to a difference in taxes. While the price of gasoline in Europe is more than twice that in the United States, the price of gas excluding taxes is nearly identical in the two areas. Some Canadians and Mexicans, close to the U.S. border, drive into the United States to purchase cheaper gasoline at gas stations in border communities.
Due to heavy fluctuations of gas price in the United States, some gas stations offered their customers the option to buy and store gas for future uses, such as the service provided by First Fuel Bank.
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