Blessed by the Potato

I heard on the news that gas prices were going up significantly in advance of the long weekend, to the $1.15/L range. I already filled up earlier in the week at $1.05 expecting some such foolishness, but was quite surprised this evening when I drove by a gas station at $1.12, then the next one at $0.977 (with a fairly busy lot), then further down the road, 2 stations across the street from each other at $0.944 — the cars waiting in line backed out onto the road and nearly stopping traffic at that intersection. I just don’t understand some of this gas price behaviour — if the price really is going up, then how can the stations afford to drop it like that? If they have that kind of leeway in their margins, then are they screwing us the rest of the time? It reminds me of some of the other patterns in gas pricing. When I first moved to London, there was a very reliable pattern where the gas prices would go up on the weekend, and for most of the week would be higher in Toronto than in London. However, Monday nights they would reliably drop in London, dipping a bit below what Toronto was charging on the weekend. About two years ago the situation got a fair bit more complex, and I haven’t seen as much of a “weekend effect” in London, though there does still seem to be one in Toronto. Then there are particular stations: the one at Don Mills and Finch tends to lower its prices by 3-5 cents/L on Friday and Saturday nights after midnight (and it’s strange to see the streets virtually empty, but cars waiting 4 deep out onto the road for cheap gas). This latest nonsense with prices about 10 cents/L lower than par, I just don’t get… sometimes I think the station owners just get a kick out of motorists going crazy in line.

Also, this afternoon I was talking about the dipping sauces pretty much every pizza place sells nowadays, and pointed out that it can’t be too long before they start selling them in the grocery stores. In fact, many places (such as Easttown and Pizza Hut) just use prepackaged Hellman’s sauces, so I was surprised that they weren’t already available for individuals. And sure enough, tonight at Sobeys I saw featured in their deli section a 3-pack of Pizza Pizza dipping sauce; very serendipitous. What I found odd was that they were actually charging more for them than Pizza Pizza was ($3.85 for 3; I know the prices have gone up recently, but I do believe they’re still less than a dollar at Pizza Pizza).