From Kevin Drum:
COSTCO….I was over at CostCo yesterday and they were selling gasoline (regular unleaded) for $2.27 a gallon. Cars were lined up ten deep at each service bay, waiting about 20 minutes each to get to the pump.
On my way home I passed four gas stations. The posted price for regular unleaded at each one was $2.33, $2.34, $2.35, and $2.39. So that’s an average of $2.35, or eight cents higher than CostCo.
The CostCo lines had the usual mix of big cars and little cars. Figure the average tank size was about 15 gallons. At eight cents a gallon, that’s a savings of $1.20 compared to other gas stations.
That means these folks were all willing to idle away in line at CostCo for 20 minutes in order to save about a dollar. It’s amazing, isn’t it? It’s almost like CostCo has them hypnotized or something.