Rants and Ramblings: random commentary about culture, media, politics, technology and whatnot.

ka-ching

It was amazing this past week watching just how quickly gas prices shot up. At the Texaco station in Arlington where we picked up the moving truck last Wednesday, regular unleaded was going for around $2.90 (if memory serves). The attendant crossed out language in our rental contract that would charge us a $25 fee in addition to the price of gas if we returned the truck with anything less than a full tank. “We’ll just fill up the tank at whatever our regular unleaded price is,” he said, adding somewhat darkly, “which seems to be going up by the minute.”

(Post columnist Marc Fisher makes an interesting point today that gas station owners are seeing their profit margins drop with these rising gas prices, as they pay more in credit card processing fees and lose business in their convenience stores. Visa and Mastercard are making bank.)

On Saturday, when I went to my Alexandria apartment to clean and retrieve some items, I passed three stations on Route 1 with prices that made my jaw drop: $3.59 at the Exxon in Crystal City; $3.59 at the Crown by Potomac Yard; $3.49 at the Exxon down the street. (I may be reversing the order of who had what price.) I held off buying from any of those, but out of necessity ended up stopping for gas around the corner from my old place. On the intersection of Mt. Vernon and Monroe avenues are two gas stations — a Shell and an Exxon — that are generally in pretty close competition. But that day, I noticed that the Shell’s sign read $3.19, and I swerved to the next lane to make a break for it … until I realized that all the pumps had plastic bags over them. Resigned, I turned into the Exxon, where I paid $15 ($3.49/gal) for 4.3 gallons of gas.

Back in the day, I could fill up my tank for less than that. I can’t even imagine what SUV owners are paying these days to fill up their tanks. And I thought prices were bad before…

I guess this makes me even more thankful than ever that I’ve moved someplace where I’ll be able to walk or Metro to most places I need to go, using the car only for longer excursions or trips that require transporting more than I can carry on my own. While reducing my driving won’t spare me the impact of these rising gas prices — the price of gas affects so many other things, including the price of commodities and heating in the winter — I at least won’t have to deal with the gas pump sticker shock quite as often.