man... how long do you guys think it will take me to bike 25 miles?

the gas station is also powered by a generator that burns a ton of diesel every day...$4000 dollars worth?

seems like gouging, but with no electricity and being 40 miles from nothing, stuff costs more.

still very sad and scary

i like how the reporter tries to make it seem as though their news team just drove down the coast on a whim and randomly found this high priced gas station. i hate how phony our newspeople have become.

Well, the houses there are a far greater multiple of the national average than is the gas. As are the salaries, by and large.

So in a relative sense, gas is REALLY FREAKING CHEAP there. Sort of the same argument people make when someone in a $100k luxury car complains about gas prices.

Not gouging? Why not post the price on the sign?

And if you're just breaking even by having to charge that much for gas, it's time to explore other business ventures, perhaps.

Not entirely a scam, but around 80% or so.

and from the looks of the people driving in that area i think they can afford $5.40 a gallon. that one woman had some giant groomed prize mutt in her passenger seat

It's $4.00 most places in the Bay Area. Or, I should say 3.99. Most gas stations don't have the balls to put up the number 4 yet. I find it increasingly funny to drive around and everything is 3.99. Then, I drive to Costco. Next month, I'm taking the train to work.

...and bull shit on that guy who runs the place saying he isn't making a dime ;)

Speaking of scams, I've noticed a lot of gas stations ONLY listing the price for 87. Then you get there and find that 93 is something like 40 cents higher.

But the stations that list all three tend to have a pretty tight spread. Coincidence?

@MazdaEric: Her press agent?

I pay the most of any North American on here I believe. $1.30 / litre. And that's for regular, when my car takes 94 octane.

It's also Full Service, which probably adds a .50 premium.

A man of my stature simply CAN'T dirty his hands like you peasants. Respect your betters, and pump my gas for me.

@doctor_cos: Agreed. And the gas station " manager" seems to have a grin on his damn face as he's complaining about just breaking even.

Hate it.

Aren't those the same gas stations that are always at least $1.50/gal higher than everybody else? The ones that are always in the news, with the reporters saying how expensive gas is? I think these stations are quite the exception to gas prices.

Isn't full service gas always more expensive?

@Andrewpetty: It's the cheapest option in New Jersey.

As for me, I paid $3.48/gallon for premium yesterday. There are perks to living in Kansas.

And the $5 gasoline did come. And the people did buy it. But yay did they mourn it. And he sent his horsemen, four strong, to the shores of suburbia and he drove the bleating masses to the cities. And they did find a love of Peugeots, and Fiats, and compression ignition. And it was good.

@Andrewpetty: in NJ you only get full service, yet still the lowest priced gas (i think) in the nation...thanks to those lovely property taxes. i forget if any other state has the "you can't pump your own gas" law.

What?! How many stations is that true of, and how long has that been the case? Are you sure that's not the one station at the other side of the mountain from Reno where the gas prices are always absurd? (Like $3.50/gallon in 2000.)

Sorry if this is all answered in the video; I can't really watch it right now!

full service does not equal just pumping. Full service MEANT clean the windshield, check the fluids, top off, replace wiper blades, etc.

I believe this is the same gas station they always use as the worst example. This gas station is off in the middle of nowhere and it charges more because it has a high fee structure that pays for national park or lighthouse or something nearby. It's definitely not your normal gas station which the news always forgets.

@AndyDuncan: A-MEN Baaarother!

hehe. It's funny, I don't ever notice the tag-line/mini-headline/whatever it's called until I minimize the browser here at the office... "I feel gassy..."

I really don't think this is a huge deal. If gas is $4.00 normally, then $5.40 is 135% of the normal price. I'll bet that if you go back over the last 10 years, it's always been about that, simply because this place is in the middle of nowhere. A) It costs more to get the gas trucked there, and B) Capitalism gives him the opportunity to charge whatever the market will bear.

I'll bet gas in Death Valley is at least as expensive. Maybe CNN can send a huge, gas sucking SUV full of 'reporters' to the middle of Death Valley to cover that story. With any luck, their expense account won't cover the cost of fuel to get them back out and the buzzards will have a feast for a couple of days.

I hate the 'news'.

Biodiesel FTW!

I'm looking out the window at a station on Franklin and Cahuenga and its $3.99. Crap...I need gas this weekend to!

I remember last year driver of over a 4 ton monstrosity pulling a 35 footer. I glanced over at his pump and was in slight shock when I saw 175, then I noticed that was the gallons and he was still pumping. I just shook my head.

@FreeMan: Wait, the nightly news isn't interested in actual news stories? It's entertainment you say? Little Jimmy's lost cat isn't even as important as local politics? Peanut butter goes well with jelly? :-)

@13oostedwgn: I paid $1.27 for 89 in Toronto last week. 87 seems to be consistently $1.20/litre (which works out to about $4.50 a US gallon).

@ash: To your first comment, while CA coastal salaries may be higher than average, the cost of living is as well. The percent spread between income and expense has more impact than the absolute numbers.

But, you are 100% right regarding spending $100k on a car only to whine about the gas. ;-)

I'm not surprised. That station probably pays $.45-.47/gal more for delivery alone...

I liked the trenchant geopolitical perspective. Oh, no, wait. It's CNN.

@rscotta: This is true...people are often pretty heavily leveraged with spending half their income on housing.

But even here in Alabama, if you pick a place along a secluded lakefront near a boat launch, you can see these prices, too.

Eh, at least it makes me feel better about the $3.59 I had to pay yesterday.

I want to buy a beater that gets better mileage, but I need the price of gas to go down to lower the demand(read:price) of cheap shitboxes.

Gas prices also drive down the price of guzzlers. 6 months ago, I could've gotten $3-4k for my truck. If I wanted to sell it now, I'd be lucky to get $2k. Ain't worth selling at that price.

I just calculated that, at $3.50 per gallon, I spend 1.2 percent of my income on gasoline.

So ... meh.

I don't mind paying more for the organic sustainable gas.

Really everything cost more in California. I've seen milk at $7.99 a gallon.

relatively Brazil should be cheaper but we pay $5,60 a gallon (2,50 R$ / l)

@Andrewpetty:

Absolutely right...get your gas from a 76 in LA, and the full service will add on the premium there as well - when have CNN reported that not pumping your gas yourself will cost you extra?!! For shame CNN, sensationalist journalism at its laziest.

THIS JUST IN: A larger tank COSTS MORE TO FILL!

Film at l1...

@MazdaEric: You can't pump your own gas in Oregon either.

@MazdaEric:
You can't pump your own gas in Oregon. But I always thought that was a job's program for some of those mouth breathers down there....

Percieved cost is far greater than actual cost. When you break it down...we still pay very low prices for gasoline on a world wide scale for Economies of our kind.

@Sth002000: No wonder the cows are happy.

That gas station is just down the road a little bit - Ragged Point is the canary in the coal mine of gas prices - it's ALWAYS ridiculous because its in BFE and the clientele are either Big Sur megabucks or clueless tourists who've been white-knuckling it along the coastline at 15 under the limit.

Back in reality, I paid $3.81 last fill up. Slow news day?

I mean.. OMFGWTFBBQ, YES, IT'S AWFUL HERE, GO BACK TO NEBRASKA!!

@FThorn: But New Jersey has their own definition of "full service" and it's a bit less full.

Don't feel too bad.
Here in soggy Scotland, a US gallon of Unleaded is $8.62.

Central New York:

Three weeks ago - $3.39
Last week - $3.49
Today - $3.69

@Vintage Racer: Gas jockeys are no more mouth-breathers than servers, barristas or any other service industry position. You sound like some elitist little jerk who looks down on someone who pumps your gas and checks your fluids, while at the same time lavishly tipping servers at restaurants and the local Starbucks. Here's a news flash since you don't seem to have thought it through: gas jockeys work just as hard as people in other service industries, yet you and your ilk look down on them. No wonder they don't get tipped like every other service industry.
News flash to the rest of you: full serve is a scam. The gas station doesn't pay their employees any more money than the person at the till in a self-serve station, and often pays them LESS (and those who work in full-serve work HARDER and have to do more than those in self-serve).

@JollyJumjuck: Can't even FIND a full-service station in my area.

And on the rare occassion that I do, I tip them, very well. I appreciate and understand the situation.

But your rant stands.

@al_beaton: You win.

@al_beaton: Then buy it by the litre, silly ... it's cheaper that way!

@JollyJumjuck: The difference is that we can choose to buy our own food at the grocery store and cook our own meal cheaper than at the restaurant. Or we can go to fast food restaurants and not have to pay for waiters and waitresses.