Gasoline Market Mayhem In Hawaii
by Vince Daliessio
When we last posted about Hawaii's wrongheaded wholesale gasoline price cap, we predicted that retail prices would skyrocket when the actual wholesale cost hit the cap.
That didn't materialize, because for some unknown reason, (probably state government intimidation), the retailers haven't raised their prices to meet demand.
Instead, they are simply either running out of fuel, or losing money,or both;
Robinson said Chevron, which prides itself on keeping station tanks full, has had more than 40 "runouts" since the gas cap law went into effect. Robinson said before the gas cap one "runout" a month was considered unacceptable.
Robinson, who operates two Chevron stations, dropped his prices to $2.99 at his Kahala location yesterday even though he still had gas in his tanks that he bought at last week's higher rate. Robinson said he expects to lose about $15,000 selling gas below cost this week.
At Kahala Shell, co-owner Madeleine Snow said she almost ran out of gasoline yesterday after dropping her price to $2.98 for a gallon of regular. She said that last week she had to cancel gasoline deliveries because of slow business.
"This week I can't keep up," Snow said.
(Thanks to The Mises Institute for the tip)