Update 1 - 2/27 Sutter Hill Gas Prices

Here is the first update to the original post from last week on Sutter Hill gas prices. Three more stations have been added to the survey (1 in Jackson, Martell, and Ione) from Amador County and two stations have been added from Folsom. I've added the Folsom stations so that we can see the consistent pump price difference between Chevron and Shell stations in Folsom versus Amador County. This move to compare same brand stations is in response to jbjbj's comment that branded stations are forced to purchase their gas from their brand's distributor rather than a wholesaler, which the Safeways and Mirastar/WalMarts can purchase from.


There still exists a 20-30 cent difference between the unbranded versus the branded stations. What is not as noticable is with the inclusion of the Folsom branded stations, comparison of like-branded stations still shows Amador County 10-15 higher than the Valley.

I am still not convinced that branded stations have to purchase from their distributor but I cannot cite a reputable source to confirm.

Update: I believe the article I read that seems to imply that all gas comes from the same place and is the same gas until additives are introduced post-refinery was from the May 08, 2003 Sacramento News & Review.

Lindsay Wagner on Sleep Number Commercials

I was about to go to sleep last night and the Sleep Number mattress infomercial came on. If any of you have seen these infomercials over the years, you'll remember that Lindsay Wagner from Bionic Woman fame is the pitch person. I'll admit she's always looked pretty good. Then I noticed something last night, every time she was on the screen the image would be fuzzy. It was as if she was in her own dreamlike state. This was not a technical issue, it was intentional. Has she aged to the point that her appearances on this infomercial have to be blurred?

TV Ad disclaimers

One of the more amusing (or asinine) disclaimers on television right now is for the Ford Edge, a crossover vehicle. The commercial depicts the Edge driving on the edge of hi-rise rooftops on two wheels, with the rest of the vehicle floating in the air. Not the best of commercials, but it has a somewhat catchy tune.

In the middle of all this MTV-inspired video, oops commercial, pops up this disclaimer on the bottom:

"Yes, this is a fantasy. Vehicles can't really drive on buildings."

Ok, seriously??!?! Has our litigious society reduced advertisers to covering their butts with such obvious disclaimers? If someone does try to drive on the edge of a building and dies, then a Darwin award should be handed out.

Employees and their sense of entitlement

Anyone that works near me knows exactly what I speak of when I say employees have a sense of entitlement, specifically a right to have more than a 6% guaranteed yearly pay raise.

Now for a little background info on how we all got to this point. Prior to 2006, the ceiling for pay raises at my place of employment was 10% per year. It seemed as though achieving a pay raise of at least 6% was quite common for a majority of the employees. So perhaps many employees have gotten used to a 10% raise? When it was announced in 2006 that the raise cap would be 6% and everyone would be receiving this raise as long as they were employed, the announcement upset quite a few people.

Employees upset over the announcement were mostly divided into two parties:

• Those upset that everyone would be receiving the same raise regardless of performance
• Those upset that 6% would be the maximum yearly raise

I can partially sympathize with the folks in the first group. By guaranteeing a set raise, there is no incentive to improve performance. The good employees essentially carry the poor employees. Yet, I am also cognizant of the fact that some managers would automatically give a 10% raise to their friends and little or no raise to employees they did not like.

As for the second group of upset employees, I have no sympathy for them. Here are some statistics for you to mull over:

• The US Military across-the-board raise for 2007 is 2.2% (read)
• The US civilian average raise in 2006 calculated by the Employee Cost Index is 1.7%
• The US employee average raise in 2005 calculated by HR Mercer Consulting is 3.6%

Consider this, at 10%, an employee nearly doubles the initial starting salary after 7 years, discounting the high probability of promotions and pay raises based off the promotions. I know not all and probably not even a majority of the employees fall into the second group, who I will now call the 6% Percenters, but the gall of these employees because they have fallen off the gravy train is sickening.

Sutter Hill Gasoline Prices

As a study of gasoline prices in a very localized market, I've decided to focus on 3 gas stations located in Sutter Hill, CA.

The reasons are simple:

• Two of the stations are across the street from each other and are along my daily commute route
  
• The third station is where I actually go for my gas and is the catalyst for price adjustments by the other two gas stations
• Sutter Hill is at least 30 miles from the nearly metropolitan area and gasoline prices are generally unaffected by the lower prices in the "big city"

Now the gas stations in the study:

• Shell (corner of Ridge Road & Hwy 49)
• Chevron (corner of Ridge Road & Hwy 49)
• Safeway (corner of Industrial Blvd & Hwy 49)

As a former resident of in the Sacramento Valley, I have always had the benefit of cheaper gas prices. On average the prices in the Valley have always been 20-30 cents lower than in Amador County. This all changed on December 1st, 2006 when the new Safeway opened, complete with a Safeway branded gas station. The gas price from regular unleaded gas was $2.55, which was equal to the price at the Valley's Costco. Soon after, both Shell and Chevron lowered their prices to within pennies of the Safeway price. To the many locals that have voiced their opinions about years price gouging by local gas station operators, this was long-awaited vindication.

Then last week, I noticed something was amiss. The Chevron was charging $2.85 while the Shell was charging $2.71, a spread of 14 cents. These two stations had always priced their gasoline in lock-step with each other, but not last week. The assumption here was that Safeway had also raised their prices and there was some delay in raising the prices at the Shell station. I was wrong. Safeway was priced at $2.51.

This week, Chevron is at $2.87, Shell at $2.85, and Safeway at $2.55.

Have the established gas stations given up the price fight against Safeway? Or is Safeway able to uncut the competition given it's deep corporate pockets? I believe it's a combination of both. Over the weekend, I noticed the average price of gasoline in the Valley was in the $2.60 range. So not only is Safeway undercutting the Sutter Hill competitors, but also undercutting the average price in Valley.

I, for one, will continue to purchase my gasoline at Safeway especially with the 3 cent per gallon discount for using my Club Card. I will also begin tracking the gas prices for these 3 stations.