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Gas prices take giant leap at most Greencastle stations
One day after a gasoline-price website reported that the largest single-day pump price jumps in the United States have occurred in Fort Wayne and Indianapolis this summer, Greencastle went them a couple cents better Wednesday.
While several local stations, including the pumps at Kroger, listed regular unleaded gas at $3.26 a gallon on Tuesday, the pump price jumped to $3.65 at many of those stations by mid-day Wednesday.
That computes to a jump of 39 cents in one price hike.
Just after noon Wednesday, every station east of Kroger in Greencastle was showing a $3.65-per-gallon figure for unleaded regular. Stations on the north side of town followed similarly at $3.65.
Kroger, however, stood fast at $3.26 and was doing a brisk business at the pumps all afternoon Wednesday. As of 6 p.m., Kroger was still advertising a pump price of $3.26 but later changed to $3.65.
That giant leap of 39 cents in Greencastle topped a 34-cent jump in Fort Wayne and a 32-cent hike in Indianapolis, as noted by the websiteGasBuddy.com.
"While major markets like L.A., N.Y. and Chicago get much of the attention and criticism, they're not even in the top 20 among cities that see the steepest price hikes," reported Patrick DeHaan, senior petroleum analyst with GasBuddy.
"The steep price hikes recorded in more than 25 cities in the Midwest dwarf the increases seen in the rest of the country," he added.
And nowhere had it been worse than Ft. Wayne. Until Wednesday, Fort Wayne had the highest single-day average price hike of 34 cents per gallon among its three highest daily changes.
Fort Wayne, Indiana's second-largest city, was followed by Indianapolis at (32 cents); Dayton (31 cents); Columbus, Ohio (30 cents) and Toledo (28 cents).
DeHaan emphasized that the figures represent the average of the three highest single-day price spikes and that Midwesterners have seen 30-plus cent increases often enough to know they're not a statistical anomaly. On the West Coast, Bakersfield, Calif., had the largest increase in its single-day prices (taking the average of the highest three daily spikes) with a nine-cent gain. In the Rocky Mountains region, Colorado Springs led the list with an 11-cent single day spike.
The Gulf Coast region's highest single-day spike was recorded in Lubbock, Texas (14 cents per gallon) while on the East Coast it was Myrtle Beach, S.C., posting an 11-cent increase to lead that region.
GasBuddy also examined "frequency of price changes" and found that the Midwest and West Coast regions led the way with the number of days prices changed a penny or more per gallon. Nationwide, stations in Stockton, Calif., have posted 72 days of price changes of more than a penny per gallon since Jan. 1, while Memphis, Jackson, Miss., and New Haven, Conn., have all recorded 67 increases of a penny or more.
"While small cities lead the way among markets with the steepest price spikes, we saw some larger Midwestern cities like Chicago, Milwaukee and Detroit positioned prominently among the leaders for days with one-cent or more price increases, and that undoubtedly fuels consumer anxiety in places where there's plenty already," Gregg Laskoski, another senior petroleum analyst with GasBuddy, said.
"But when we look at the number of days with average price decreases of more than a penny, we see the Midwestern cities more than doubling every other region in the country," DeHaan noted, "and it's the downside of that rollercoaster ride that consumers easily forget. We complain about the higher highs, but we're quiet when we benefit from the lower lows."