Pricey on Pico: $4.75 a gallon in West L.A.

I'm seeing a lot of $4.29's on the Westside, but I saw this one this morning at the corner of Pico and Barrington. That's some expensive gasoline. There must be something special in it.

Your thoughts? Comments? E-mail story tips to peter.viles@latimes.com
Photo Credit: L.A. Land

Comments

[bode]

If you think the $4.75 is expensive, ask them how much the racing fuel costs! I've always wondered how this station is able to charge so much -- it's been that way for at least 5 years, long before gas was in the stratosphere. I guess they have a customer base who just doesn't care?

For those who don't live on the west side of Los Angeles, this station is in a normal, nice neighborhood of $700k to $1m+ homes, but it's not Brentwood, Bel Air or Beverly Hills (or even Santa Monica!).

If anyone knows how they can do it, let us know, so we can start printing money also!

[Me]

I'm not sure how this place stays in business. It's consistently $0.20 higher than the surrounding gas stations.

[perks]

I can only imagine what the price of the racing fuel would be!

[Martin]

Actually, doesn't this fall under the category of price gouging? Are there any laws that can contain this sort of profiteering? Anyone care to comment?

There's another station in the San Fernando Valley that charges similar prices. They're located on the northeast corner of Van Nuys Boulevard and Riverside Drive, immediately north of the Ventura/101 freeway. Everytime I drive past this station I am bewildered by how these gas station owners get away with such mark ups.

[MyLessThanPrimeBeef]

Peter, how about also including a picture of how much they are charging for milk inside the gas station?

I understand $8 gas will be good for the environment, but what will $8 milk give us - genetic modified cows?

[Arti]

I live a few blocks from this one and you guessed it--I just don't care. $4.50, $5, what's the difference, that's like $6 a tank and when you work and live on the westside it really doesn't amount to a hell of beans. The whole gas issue is really for valley people, and I put 93 octane in my Porsche.

[Laker]

It says Racing fuel...so my guess is that all their grade are enhanced with racing fuel....
Some gas stations are only making 10 cents per gallon gross profit. This station is obviously making 30-40 cents per gallon. So maybe the owner is better selling less gallons and he still can make the same or more profit to stay alive. The others are working on the volume to make same total money.
Next week their regular will be in the $5,00 range, then what?
We need to remember that gas is way lagging the price of barrel of oil. Based on the price increase in oil, gas should have been $5.50-6 already.

[tealeaf]

Martin: why waste time with a law to prevent someone from selling "racing fuel" at a 20 cent premium?

There are a thousand other options for gas.

As painful as this is, it's still cheaper than bottled water and coffee per gallon. And it's making people make better choices, like slowing down on the freeway and parking the H3.

[Michael Snyder]

Last week AP quoted the head of OPEC stating that oil prices are being driven by speculation, not the laws of supply and demand.
As the good old boys at Goldman & Merill have their lackeys announce/predict soaring prices and the loyal herd of "investors" celebrate their long positions while the rest of us are cutting back on every front to absorb the cost of their speculation.
This is the end result of the Fed's money laundering method of cleaning up the sub prime mess. With fingers still smarting from their idiotic investments in "mortgage & derivative options" the boys on Wall St. took their windfall and went long in the oil market. Still operating on a no-load basis, these fools have managed to drive a stake through the world's economy with no money down. Now positioned with borrowed funds in yet another bubble, the investment houses/Wall St. casinos are forced to hedge their bets with "expert predictions" of $200 a barrel oil. I like the announcement from Merill last week where their "expert" predicted $141 a barrel by next month. Any guesses what their long term position is worth?
Just as in the subprime debacle, those on the margins are effected first, so I'm a bit skeptical about the hue & cry of "world demand". This is just the last hurrah for the Texas oil clan in DC. I just wonder who they're going to beg their next $400 billion bail out from.

[Tombstone Realty]

Racing fuel huh.

As in "I'll race you to the next set of lights on Pico?"
The only thing that races in downtown traffic is people's blood pressure.

[KateNonymous]

On Saturday I paid $4.15 a gallon at Pico and Overland. If I saw the station in this post, it would definitely be worth the time to keep heading east past the 405 to save 60 cents a gallon.

[tew]

Peter,

Enough with the gasoline prices. It was smart to remind us that this impacts consumer spending as well as real estate prices in the places with long commutes. But what's the point in using this blog to track the highest gasoline price you come across?

[Michael Snyder]

tew
Whether you realize it or not; gasoline prices were the straw that popped the subprime bubble. Since then the prices have doubled with no end in sight. Consumers aren't spending & banks aren't lending. Everybody's long on oil and the Wall St bulls**t factory's running overtime to keep up with the demand. So you want to know what gas prices have to do with real estate? Do a little math and when you figure the percentage of your income you burn in your gas tank, calculate how that loss of income will effect your ability to qualify for a loan with 25% down & drop me a line.

[mike]

i don't really care for the gas price blog either. there is a mixed feeling as to wether this has any effect on housing at all. i don't have a long commute but when i do drive i like the fact that there is less traffic.

[Janet May]

Psychology is a big part of Real Estate prices obviously. Gas prices inpact people everyday. They see the prices going up on gas station signs and twice a week they fill up and get shocked. It's a constant reminder that the economy is not doing well and our energy policy has failed us and left us in a lurch that is hurting lower and middle income people.

Outlying areas are getting really hurt in property values because people now have a new dynamic when home shopping
"how much will it cost me in gas to get to work, school, shopping?"
We can't just amputate the suburbs and all move to the city, the city is already way too expensive. That's why we build suburban communities and why we need them.

We need to solve the fuel cost problems. Did you see that diesel price? WOW! Everything you buy is impacted by that $5.59 diesel price. In Temecula diesel is $5.99! Go to this website and get involved, you are only hurting yourself by not trying to fix things:

www.AmericansForJobsAndEnergy.org

[Michael Snyder]

It's important to note the recent bubble in the oil market's being driven with funds loaned by the Fed against subprime collateral nobodies going to value at its' standing price when they have to buy it back from the Fed in another 120 days or so. Wall St. has a limited amount of time to cover their over priced butts and as usual they're doing it on the backs of the consumer. Janet's got the right idea; get involved. Whether in energy or quality of life issues like those addressed by the American Cancer Society the situation will only deteriorate if we stand on the sidelines.

[Laker]

Michael Snyder, You are correct.
Had the fed kept rates at 5.25% and/or never taken those MBS for treasuries, oil would be less than $70 and gas less than $2.00, also no inflation . All this at the price of WAMU, CITI, CW out of business and FDIC paying the money to depositors (same $300 billion the fed paid for all MBS garbage)
Which option was better to take? Which one was taken?

[jb]

As Laker points out - it is the banker's whore Ben Bernanke who is responsible for the high price of gas. Cutting rates, devaluing the $, to rescue banker buddies.

My prediction: gas will go to about $5, then magically drop to $3 right around election time.

[Juanito]

For what it is worth! I am in no way a fan of oil companies or anything related. However, be aware that individual stations do not decide what they are going to charge for a gallon of gasoline. All of those details are specifically outlined in the franchise contract and the oil companies dictate the specific price for the specific station. Oil companies have some very sophisticated matrices that spit out the right price based on demographics, location, distance to nearest station, etc... Most, if not all gas station owners make about the same amount of money/gallon regardless of what is being charged to the consumer. Just thougt you should know.

[yours truly, Johnny Dollar]

There is a number of places to fill your tank on the westside. No one is putting a dipstick to your head
and telling you to get gassed at Pico and Barrington.
Milk and bread at a 7-11 is more expensive than
milk and bread at Albertsons. I don't read on this
site that anyone is pointing a finger at 7-11.
Just roll into the pump at your neighborhood
Valero or ARCO. With only six refineries in the
region, chances are (with apologies to Johnny Mathis)
its gas coming from the same cow, anyway.
You shop the internet for the
lowest air fares.

[yours truly, Johnny Dollar]

Leader of the pack: 06-04-08 0920 hours......
Union 76 station Pico and Barrington:
87 octane: $4.83 point 9.

[peteviles]

Johnny Dollar, where is your photo, bud? Here I am ready to send you an LA Land coffee mug.

[go]

I see even Lazard Chairman and CEO Bruce Wasserstein said the obvious today:

"Obviously, when you have a runaway increase in volume in transaction volumes of securities and liabilities and you leverage the equity at that sort of rate, you dramatically increase the risk."

Wall Street's Ph.Ds "have proven to be worthless, if not harmful."

The large broker-dealers' post-Bear Stearns collapse Fed funding: "This is a give-away from taxpayers and should only be granted in exchange for tighter regulatory control."

The credit rating agencies' methods to rate mortgage securities and corporate bonds: "It's like comparing a grape to a grapefruit."

The rating agencies "need a lot of work."

About Standard & Poor's downgrading large investment banks because of their leverage: "It's funny the rating agencies got around to thinking about this issue yesterday."

"There was a new era of financial markets. They became global, they became technical and they became interdependent. However, the genie got out of the bottle and was completely uncontrolled in a common sense way."

Wall Street banks cannot depend on "infinite capital" to bail themselves out of wrong-way leverage.

"This is a bubble, and we're at the point where the bubble burst relatively early and that's a good thing. In my view ... the system had gotten to excess, fairly predictable excess and it's calmed down and we'll all be the better for it."

[yours truly, Johnny Dollar]

Peter, I pawned my Kodak Brownie so I would have
a few quarters to air up my Schwinn bicycle's balloon
tires. No camera; no picture (or something like that).
These are The Perilous Times--not to be confused
with the L. A. Times.