Does anyone else find this hyperbolic? Gas prices here in the US are up about 26% from their recent-past price -- it stayed in a very narrow range of about $3.20 for a year or two, and now is at $4.05.
A "FUEL CRISIS" is what you are seeing in Moscow right now. People lined up for miles and sometimes when you get to the front the delivery does not happen because the refinery got blown up. Or at least the 1970s oil crisis. A 26% bump in prices is a major annoyance, not a "crisis."
I would guess that the person who wrote this headline has some kind of a political agenda.
Did he describe it as a "fuel crisis" when gas prices rose from their previous ~2.80 baseline to the peak of $4.93 in June 2022, a 76% increase? Or was it not a crisis then for some reason?
Just want to clear that up that the jargon is selected specifically from a general understanding and not one from a political skew!
I also wasn't tracking fuel prices back in 2022, otherwise I probably would have included similar dialog given the nature of what caused the prices to rise.
It's just an odd choice on a page that's only about USA fuel prices. I wouldn't describe a 26% increase in any price as a ____ crisis. RAM and storage prices, now that's a crisis.
I believe OP's earnest statement that he's not trying to be political. I just think that propagandizing - if that was the motivation - would be dishonest by most definitions:
If one were just trying to boost Dems in the midterms by the classic "gas prices high -> loss for party in control" method, but they were saying "Inflation isn't that bad and gas prices are fine" during the 76% gas price spike in 2022, that's extreme bad faith.
And if one is implying "Fuel prices are higher now, therefore conflict with Iran is bad" I'd argue that's a shitty, cowardly, and selfish metric to base policy decisions on. Surely some battles are worth fighting because an enemy's behavior is too intolerable to allow, and gas prices being temporarily high is annoying, but not reason to capitulate.
GasBuddy is great, no doubt! I was well familiar with them before working on the site. The issue is that their data is user reported and not directly reported from Costco's warehouse numbers - so there were a few times that the price was vastly different from what was at the pump.
The user-reported vs source-reported thing is bigger than people think. I work with car listing prices and the gap between what people say something costs and what the source actually shows is basically the whole reason my product works. Pulling from the warehouse numbers is the right call even if the coverage is smaller.
Costco gas is famously a loss leader, typically running 15 to 20 cents below surrounding stations.
Is this true? I always assumed that Costco just had better deals/longer horizon commitments so it could undercut local stations. Maybe they even own a refinery just to maintain the best margin.
They are selling 10000 gallons a day at some locations, so I find it hard to believe.
More like they don’t have a need to make a profit and they run the station in a barebones manner on real estate that they get as part of the larger site. So it would be a loss leader for anyone else.
It would be illogical to make gasoline a "loss leader" because, surely, there are people who visit the gas station and then jet out of there without going anywhere else. A loss leader item is something that gets people in the door, puts their butt in a seat, and gets them to make a transaction that will include piling on other stuff. So if your Jumbo Jack is a loss leader, then you can charge $2.00 for sodas and $3.00 for French fries, and the same customer will probably also grab a $6 Oreo shake.
Someone who's filling up for gas may or may not go inside the Costco store proper. But the gasoline isn't going to influence their buying habits. If they "just need gas" that's all they'll get.
Conversely, I cannot see how a $1.50 hot dog is doing anything but losing money. It's a classic candidate for loss leader.
During what I seem to recall was an earnings call about ten years ago, it was stated that Costco doesn't do loss-leaders. What they more likely do is sell the gas close to cost.
Costco isnt losing $10. They can sell gas at cost to run a gas station if they want to. They break even and get people there instead of a normal gas station.
I drove from Fargo to Port Angeles recently and hit up Costco for gas as much as possible. Should have written reviews of the Costcos along I94/I90. Billings was the best.
People spend money on gas, and sometimes one Costco has cheaper gas than another does.
The two Costcos that are nearest to me are listed at $3.65 and $3.79 right now. They're ~25 minutes apart. I think it would be fair to say that there's thousands of people living in-between where the difference in driving distance is irrelevant.
But if they decide that buying gas is a thing they're going to do today, and they can quickly compare the prices beforehand, then: They can use that data to help make an informed decision.
A 14-cent price delta isn't much, but if 11 gallons are purchased then it's enough to cover the price of a Costco hot dog and Coke (with refill). Not bad at all.
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Additionally: While Costco seemingly doesn't make (much) money on gas, that doesn't mean that they're always cheaper.
Suppose I were making a Costco trip today and I also need to buy gas. I'd be heading to the Costco that has gas for $3.65 because that one is much closer for me.
But I can get gas for $3.62 right now at the station down the block from my house. There's no line there (there's never a line there), there's no membership proof to futz around with, and it's super easy to get in and out of.
Since I have enough easy information to make an informed decision, then: I can tell that the smart move is to plan on skipping whatever line may be present at Costco's gas station and just buy gas down the block. This will save me both time and money.
But tomorrow? Who knows. The situation may be different, so I may make a different decision.
Watching gas prices makes sense. Watching Costco gas prices does not. Their gas is not sold without the membership factor attached. You're selecting for an additional variable of nearby Costco members when you choose to track Costco gas prices. If Costco memberships decline, prices need to slowly rise. If Costco memberships rise, their gas prices can go lower.
I just fill up when I’m low on gas at the nearest gas station. It’s not worth my time to save $1.50 a fill up when I fill up ~50 times a year, that’s only $75.
Spending any amount of time to save 20.5 cents per day is not worth it to me.
In my travels, the delta is often much greater than ~15 cents. Today is an unusually-consistent day in this market area.
I'd love say that keeping an eye on gas prices and trying to time the market to buy on the right day are things that make poor use of my time. That sounds very nice.
I don't have the financial means to turn a blind eye to these kinds of costs, though. Things are rough over here.
What is more important that those $75 is whether or not the gas offered at the other station is Top Tier grade. Costco always is as far as I can tell. (I am not affiliated with Costco in any way shape or form)
The prices move on dozens of other factors, most of which include the word "supply" however some do not. Using Costco as an example will add "membership retention factor" into the mix of factors for price. Better to track all the Sunoco or BP or Mobil stations directly.
I started screenshotting my local Costco warehouse gas prices weekly since the week prior to Trump's inauguration, mostly so my Trump supporting brother inlaw couldn't just spew his Fox brainwashing on me without me hitting back with this data.
I've been tracking every fuel purchase I've made for 12 years now across 5 or 6 different cars. Not sure what I'll ever do with that information, but I suppose it may come in handy for a political argument.
There was a blog post around 10 years ago where someone did the math and found the extra wait wasn't worth the savings if you value your time.
For me, locally, there's a grocery store chain that also has gas stations. If you are a member (which is free), you get a discounted rate on gas - usually only 3-5 cents more per gallon than Costco. And if you do enough groceries in a 3 month period, you occasionally get an additional 10-20 cents off your next filling, which makes it cheaper than Costco.
They're also open a lot more hours than Costco gas. And their lines are shorter.
I don't see the point of going to Costco to get gas.
I don't live at Costco so it's going to be 30 minutes just back and forth. My Costco does have quieter times, but then I have to plan around it. It never made the slightest bit of sense to make a separate trip for $5.
Let's nevermind this nonsense about waiting in lines.. I want to know more about what is happening to electrons after they trickle into your tank. Where do they end up when you go for a drive? Are we pumping them back into the air?
> "a Global Fuel Crisis"
Does anyone else find this hyperbolic? Gas prices here in the US are up about 26% from their recent-past price -- it stayed in a very narrow range of about $3.20 for a year or two, and now is at $4.05.
A "FUEL CRISIS" is what you are seeing in Moscow right now. People lined up for miles and sometimes when you get to the front the delivery does not happen because the refinery got blown up. Or at least the 1970s oil crisis. A 26% bump in prices is a major annoyance, not a "crisis."
I would guess that the person who wrote this headline has some kind of a political agenda.
Did he describe it as a "fuel crisis" when gas prices rose from their previous ~2.80 baseline to the peak of $4.93 in June 2022, a 76% increase? Or was it not a crisis then for some reason?
Hi! Absolutely zero political agenda here, just someone wanting to track the price of fuel.
While Wikipedia isn't always to be trusted (everyone knows that), the situation has been widely described as a crisis: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_Strait_of_Hormuz_crisis.
Just want to clear that up that the jargon is selected specifically from a general understanding and not one from a political skew!
I also wasn't tracking fuel prices back in 2022, otherwise I probably would have included similar dialog given the nature of what caused the prices to rise.
I'm not sure what you want. There is a global fuel crisis. Wikipedia calls it a "worldwide fuel crisis". Is this in dispute?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_Iran_war_fuel_crisis
It's just an odd choice on a page that's only about USA fuel prices. I wouldn't describe a 26% increase in any price as a ____ crisis. RAM and storage prices, now that's a crisis.
I believe OP's earnest statement that he's not trying to be political. I just think that propagandizing - if that was the motivation - would be dishonest by most definitions:
If one were just trying to boost Dems in the midterms by the classic "gas prices high -> loss for party in control" method, but they were saying "Inflation isn't that bad and gas prices are fine" during the 76% gas price spike in 2022, that's extreme bad faith.
And if one is implying "Fuel prices are higher now, therefore conflict with Iran is bad" I'd argue that's a shitty, cowardly, and selfish metric to base policy decisions on. Surely some battles are worth fighting because an enemy's behavior is too intolerable to allow, and gas prices being temporarily high is annoying, but not reason to capitulate.
GasBuddy is great for this. You can see average gas prices across all gas stations for a certain region (or nation-wide).
https://www.gasbuddy.com/charts
The data goes back even over 25 years if you play around with the query params (it started in June of 2000). E.g.
https://charts.gasbuddy.com/ch.gaschart?Country=USA&Crude=f&...
GasBuddy is great, no doubt! I was well familiar with them before working on the site. The issue is that their data is user reported and not directly reported from Costco's warehouse numbers - so there were a few times that the price was vastly different from what was at the pump.
The user-reported vs source-reported thing is bigger than people think. I work with car listing prices and the gap between what people say something costs and what the source actually shows is basically the whole reason my product works. Pulling from the warehouse numbers is the right call even if the coverage is smaller.
They are selling 10000 gallons a day at some locations, so I find it hard to believe.
More like they don’t have a need to make a profit and they run the station in a barebones manner on real estate that they get as part of the larger site. So it would be a loss leader for anyone else.
The Acquired episode about Costco (https://www.acquired.fm/episodes/costco) claims they don't do loss leaders at all.
It would be illogical to make gasoline a "loss leader" because, surely, there are people who visit the gas station and then jet out of there without going anywhere else. A loss leader item is something that gets people in the door, puts their butt in a seat, and gets them to make a transaction that will include piling on other stuff. So if your Jumbo Jack is a loss leader, then you can charge $2.00 for sodas and $3.00 for French fries, and the same customer will probably also grab a $6 Oreo shake.
Someone who's filling up for gas may or may not go inside the Costco store proper. But the gasoline isn't going to influence their buying habits. If they "just need gas" that's all they'll get.
Conversely, I cannot see how a $1.50 hot dog is doing anything but losing money. It's a classic candidate for loss leader.
During what I seem to recall was an earnings call about ten years ago, it was stated that Costco doesn't do loss-leaders. What they more likely do is sell the gas close to cost.
Selling below the price of surrounding stations doesn’t mean they are losing money on the fuel.
Costco has a single store in my country and it’s butter that they sell cheaply to get people in the door. But I doubt they are losing money on it.
It makes sense. The ~$10 someone saves pumping at Costco is easily made up in the >$100 shopping trip they are making, or compared to lifetime spend.
No it doesn't. Costco has a gross profit margin of 11% and a net profit margin of 3%. Losing $10 to make $3 isn't viable.
Costco isnt losing $10. They can sell gas at cost to run a gas station if they want to. They break even and get people there instead of a normal gas station.
> Tracking Costco Gas Prices During a Global Fuel Crisis
10% more expensive than 5 years ago doesn't seem like a "crisis".
Diesel seems like more of a problem: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/GASDESW
It's crazy to me that gas in Hawaii, 3k miles out into the Pacific, is cheaper than most of California.
I drove from Fargo to Port Angeles recently and hit up Costco for gas as much as possible. Should have written reviews of the Costcos along I94/I90. Billings was the best.
Tracking Costco gas doesn't make much sense as Costco doesn't make money on gas. They use it as a loss-leader for memberships.
Watching prices makes sense.
People spend money on gas, and sometimes one Costco has cheaper gas than another does.
The two Costcos that are nearest to me are listed at $3.65 and $3.79 right now. They're ~25 minutes apart. I think it would be fair to say that there's thousands of people living in-between where the difference in driving distance is irrelevant.
But if they decide that buying gas is a thing they're going to do today, and they can quickly compare the prices beforehand, then: They can use that data to help make an informed decision.
A 14-cent price delta isn't much, but if 11 gallons are purchased then it's enough to cover the price of a Costco hot dog and Coke (with refill). Not bad at all.
---
Additionally: While Costco seemingly doesn't make (much) money on gas, that doesn't mean that they're always cheaper.
Suppose I were making a Costco trip today and I also need to buy gas. I'd be heading to the Costco that has gas for $3.65 because that one is much closer for me.
But I can get gas for $3.62 right now at the station down the block from my house. There's no line there (there's never a line there), there's no membership proof to futz around with, and it's super easy to get in and out of.
Since I have enough easy information to make an informed decision, then: I can tell that the smart move is to plan on skipping whatever line may be present at Costco's gas station and just buy gas down the block. This will save me both time and money.
But tomorrow? Who knows. The situation may be different, so I may make a different decision.
Watching gas prices makes sense. Watching Costco gas prices does not. Their gas is not sold without the membership factor attached. You're selecting for an additional variable of nearby Costco members when you choose to track Costco gas prices. If Costco memberships decline, prices need to slowly rise. If Costco memberships rise, their gas prices can go lower.
> But I can get gas for $3.62 right now at the station down the block from my house.
But is that gas station selling Top Tier[1] gas? As far as I'm aware, Costco always sells Top Tier, and now they're rolling out Top Tier+.
[1] https://www.toptiergas.com/about-top-tier/
Exactly the mentality I had while building the site
I just fill up when I’m low on gas at the nearest gas station. It’s not worth my time to save $1.50 a fill up when I fill up ~50 times a year, that’s only $75.
Spending any amount of time to save 20.5 cents per day is not worth it to me.
In my travels, the delta is often much greater than ~15 cents. Today is an unusually-consistent day in this market area.
I'd love say that keeping an eye on gas prices and trying to time the market to buy on the right day are things that make poor use of my time. That sounds very nice.
I don't have the financial means to turn a blind eye to these kinds of costs, though. Things are rough over here.
What is more important that those $75 is whether or not the gas offered at the other station is Top Tier grade. Costco always is as far as I can tell. (I am not affiliated with Costco in any way shape or form)
I disagree. The prices still move with the price of oil. Their margins are just lower.
The prices move on dozens of other factors, most of which include the word "supply" however some do not. Using Costco as an example will add "membership retention factor" into the mix of factors for price. Better to track all the Sunoco or BP or Mobil stations directly.
https://archive.ph/qX4vF
Probably a good index for predicting how midterms might go
I started screenshotting my local Costco warehouse gas prices weekly since the week prior to Trump's inauguration, mostly so my Trump supporting brother inlaw couldn't just spew his Fox brainwashing on me without me hitting back with this data.
I've been tracking every fuel purchase I've made for 12 years now across 5 or 6 different cars. Not sure what I'll ever do with that information, but I suppose it may come in handy for a political argument.
I’d be amazed if it actually changed anything with him.
Oh it won't, doesn't mean I'm not planning to rub it in his face.
It's too bad there's no API to find the current wait time at the Costco gas station. I'm not going to spend an extra hour of my day to save $5.
There was a blog post around 10 years ago where someone did the math and found the extra wait wasn't worth the savings if you value your time.
For me, locally, there's a grocery store chain that also has gas stations. If you are a member (which is free), you get a discounted rate on gas - usually only 3-5 cents more per gallon than Costco. And if you do enough groceries in a 3 month period, you occasionally get an additional 10-20 cents off your next filling, which makes it cheaper than Costco.
They're also open a lot more hours than Costco gas. And their lines are shorter.
I don't see the point of going to Costco to get gas.
If only they exposed this data!! Would have been so fun adding the display to the site
Does it routinely take an hour to get gas at Costco near you?
Even when the lines are at capacity the Costco I go to (north of Seattle in Shoreline), I never wait more than like five minutes.
i go befoe costoco opens at 7am . they have different timings.
Or don't go at 9AM with the Executive rush. Wait 30m.
Doesn’t matter at all for my local Costco. It’s busy open to close with very little variance.
The only times I’ve seen it relatively empty were during bad storms.
That said, it’s not an hour wait. Around 20 minutes is average, but I rarely fill up there since I value my time much more than that.
I don't live at Costco so it's going to be 30 minutes just back and forth. My Costco does have quieter times, but then I have to plan around it. It never made the slightest bit of sense to make a separate trip for $5.
Just wait until you have an EV! Then you will get to wait in line for an outlet, and then wait while the electrons trickle into your tank! Good times.
There's no line in my garage.
Also most of the public chargers are networked, so you know when they are busy.
Let's nevermind this nonsense about waiting in lines.. I want to know more about what is happening to electrons after they trickle into your tank. Where do they end up when you go for a drive? Are we pumping them back into the air?
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