Update 3 - 4/29 Sutter Hill Gas Prices

So, it's been almost two months since my last update on gas prices around Sutter Hill (Amador County) compared to the Sacramento Valley (specifically Folsom). This doesn't mean that I haven't been collecting pricing information over this period of time. First, let me post the latest updated chart. You'll notice the prices have bunched up, but I'll discuss that in a moment.


As of 4/27, prices are as follows: Safeway - $3.33, Mirastar - $3.33, Shell - $3.39, Chevron - $3.51, Folsom average - $3.35.

Notice anything interesting? The lower prices that both Safeway and Mirastar (Wal-Mart) had since the beginning of the year over the Folsom average price has evaporated. For the year, Folsom's average prices have been as high as 17 cents over Safeway's prices to a few cents above or below zero nowadays. What does this mean? Well, since the other Sutter Hill gas stations (Chevron and Shell) have pegged their prices an x amount over Safeway in order to maintain their market share, this movement up of Folsom average prices has consequently closed the gap between the Sutter Hill gas stations and Folsom gas stations.

From the last gas update post on March 9th, the Chevron in Sutter Hill was priced 7.2% higher than the average pump price in Folsom. The Safeway-effect was already underway at that point. As of today, there is only a 16 cent difference, which equates to a 4.5% difference, which is far below the 10% difference historically quoted by locals. Across the street at the Shell station, the difference is even smaller, 4 cents or 1.2% difference.

The Safeway-effect has changed the gas price landscape in Amador County, with prices within 5% (high-end) and equal to prices in Folsom. The change was only made possible by the introduction of Safeway gas in the mix, sparking a kind of pricing "war" in which the beneficiaries have been the residents in the area.

In the next installment of the gas price update, I will attempt to add to the chart the daily RBOB quotes. RBOB stands for "reformulated gasoline blendstock for oxygen blending" and is specific for delivery at New York Harbor. I'm not sure how to do this properly since there are many different RBOB contracts with monthly delivery/expiration dates. It will probably be easiest to pull the price for the spot month contracts, or contracts set to deliver in the current month. While the RBOB is for gasoline on the East Coast and Gulf regions, it does provide us with a consistent baseline of gasoline price before additives are put in by specific brands (Chevron's Techron, for instance) at the truck rack.