Consumer gas price war that will work?

[PalmbeachBear]

Just

[dr5274]

I don't buy from them anyways, as there's not a station close by.

But I also have a sneaking suspicion that they sell their product via many more outlets than just the local Exxon/'Mobil station. My Mom used to run a little country convenience store, and she got the gas from a local supplier, who got the gas from the regional supplier, who got the gas from the cheapest source they could, be it Exxon/Mobil/Chevron/Citgo/Shamrock/etc.

Sure hope this (or something) works....

[HandymanHerb]

If this email looks familiar, that's because one version or another has been in constant circulation since 1999. Unfortunately, it's no more likely to succeed in 2004 than it was in 2003, 2002, or any previous year. Besides the fact that economists say it's unlikely that any form of consumer boycott could have an appreciable effect on gas prices nationally, it's hard to conceive of a more tenuous way of "organizing" such a protest than by means of an anonymous, randomly distributed chain letter like the one above. Past attempts have shown little or no results.

"It's hard for a call to boycott to work," Monroe Freeman, author of a book on consumer boycotts, told the San Diego Union-Tribune in 2003 as a previous version of this message spread by email. "These often are 'Johnny One-Note' efforts which don't have the money, the organization and the sustainability to succeed."

A spokesperson for Exxon Mobil echoed those sentiments, calling the effort unrealistic. "Unless total demand is reduced for a particular market area, as opposed to shifting purchases to other companies' stations," the spokesperson told the Union-Tribune, "retail prices are unlikely to decrease — unless, of course, there is an increase in supply to that market area." The major oil companies have consistently denied that consumer boycott attempts have any impact on sales. Service station operators say their pocketbooks are hurt no less than consumers' by surging gasoline prices.

[HandymanHerb]

I need to go get the new e-tec I want so I can save gas, the only way to bring the price down is not to drive any more than we need too, run the toon at a lower speed ,park it swim and party off it.

I know I can go through 12 gallons of fuel quick pulling tubes, maybe only tube for a half hour instead of an hour.

The only way to lower the price is to go at least a month using a little gas as possible till their supply start backing up, till we can come up with something better so we can tell the sand people what they can do with their oil.

Now when I was in the 8th grade and guy in Orlando made a car that used batteries and a turbine generator, that would go 0 to 60 in 8 seconds and get 40 miles per gallon, now we can take it , that it would get heavier and slower and dropped to 30 mpg, but the gas was only 25 cents at that time, so who cared, but were is it now days.

[RiverLiver]

Fundamentally, this would never work. If one company runs out of gas, they simply purchase more, at market price, from another company (presumably the company everyone is boycotting).

This is something that goes on in that business on a daily basis regardless...

[PalmbeachBear]

Yea this makes sense....just another stupid email.....good catch

[HandymanHerb]

Hey Rick maybe we can get a grant from the government to research the fuel saving of switching everyone to E-Tec, like any research, we can take years and say we need more money to buy new engines to compare to the older e-tecs, damm I think it could work, we need to get Neil to write it up for us, he can speak Government