re: First Buc-ee's outside Texas getting sued for low gas prices

Reminds me of Walmart Neighborhood Market’s strategy a few years ago. Opened Neighborhood Markets in smaller cities on the outskirts of their Supercenters just long enough to shutdown local competition. Once they became the only game in town, they closed the Neighborhood Markets, which pushed business to their Supercenters.

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The only argument i could come up with here is that, by forcing lower prices on everyone, you could end up with lower quality gasoline. *

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I'm not reading through 5 pages, but hopefully someone has already clued you into the fact that gas is gas.

Those trucks that deliver to gas stations load out of fungible tanks at a loading rack.

Meaning, the gas in that tank at the loading rack probably came from a refinery that isn't named whatever branded gasoline station you fill up at.

Companies don't distribute "lower quality" gasoline to gas stations...there are standards that are strictly adhered to.

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Yeah growing up my dad would always tell us never put in the wholesale stuff. Exxon/Chevron/Texaco/etc direct only.

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That's marketing at it's finest. You ever wonder why that Poulan mower looks exactly like that "premium" Husqvarna at Lowe's? Because, like all gasoline, they're made in the same places with the same equipment. The only difference is badging and some additives.

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Oasis is alleging that Buccees is selling gas below cost

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So it is illegal for a company to sell something lower than what they paid for it?

The reason laws like this exist is for the protection of the consumer.

Short term the low prices will help the consumer, but long-term it destroys competition. Once competition is destroyed prices go up.

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Short term the low prices will help the consumer, but long-term it destroys competition. Once competition is destroyed prices go up.

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And then new competitors pop up. The free market is amazing. You should try it

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The law is the law. If you don't like it, lobby to change it. Breaking it because you don't like it isn't how society should work.

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NO! Break the law - suffer a fine, then challenge the constitutionality of the law - that's how it works.

Two thoughts.

Bigger can mean lower costs but over time less choice in inventory as smaller stores with better staffs and more specialized inventory is priced out of the market.

What is the tax on gas in AL? If budgets are based on a floor from tax revenue, selling at a price lower than necessary to generate the tax floor for say roads would be protected by lawmakers.

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There will always be an alternative or challenger to the status quo

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In a pure unregulated free market history would beg to differ. Again there is a very fine line to walk in order to balance free markets vs regulation. Fungible commodities are the most likely to produce monopolies.

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A new business or entrepreneur will pop up to challenge the incumbent.

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If competition is fair I might agree, but in the age of corporate multi nationals they have little thought to local markets as long as most of the money flows to their corporate offices than outflow back to the local economies.

30 years ago you had small hardware stores with employees who actually know how to help you. In a megastore good luck getting help in hardware from some clerk in sporting goods who is the lowest price the corporate folks are willing to pay.

Service and intellectual capital made America great till the 1980's and the whole "greed is good" mantra that produced excessive MBA'a at the cost of engineers, architects, and educators.