Due to a series of unforced errors on the part of certain leaders in the federal government, gas prices have gone absolutely bonkers. Where about a year and a half ago I was paying around $2.90 a gallon in my neck of the woods, last night I paid $4.50 a gallon to fill up. It’s madness. If you see anything sub four dollars, it feels like you’re having a hallucination. Now imagine what it must have been like for folks at one Georgia intersection who saw gas at 97 cents a gallon.
According to reports from WJCL-22, a grudge match erupted on Marietta Street in Powder Springs between rival Amoco and Sunoco gas stations. Amoco management followed a strict policy of keeping its fuel five cents cheaper than the competition. Sunoco matched every price cut.
Drivers Went Wild After a Gas Station Price War Sent Prices Below $1
What followed was a petty race to the bottom that represents the true promise of American capitalism, the one that never quite came to fruition. People formed huge lines at both stations as prices went from $2.54 to $1.44 to $1.39 to eventually below a dollar, bottoming out at $0.97 per gallon. For context, Georgia state average gas price is somewhere at $3.77, while the national average, according to AAA at the time of writing, is $4.27 a gallon.
Word quickly spread, and people from all around made the trek to the rival stations. One truck driver interviewed said he normally drops $90 to fill his tank, but drove off having spent only $15.
The frenzy was so wild, both stations were so crammed with cars, that local cops had to step in and block access to the pumps to let the congestion clear. Once things died down a bit, motorists who lingered around the area came rushing back to grab gas at $1.14 a gallon. Both stations eventually ended their weird price-dropping standoff and eventually reverted to normal prices the next day.
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