14 Replies to "West Seattle Gas Price Watch: Everybody's under $2"

• Del December 1, 2008 (9:30 am)

  There must be more important/interesting things happening in West Seattle to write about than the price of gas at every station.

• WSB December 1, 2008 (9:53 am)

  There are indeed many important/interesting things happening, and we write about as much of it as we can, 7 days/nights a week. Check the category archives in the lower right sidebar for the nearly 7,000 items we have published in the past almost-three years (87 of which involved gas prices). If there’s something we’re missing that you know about, we really appreciate getting a tip about it so we can follow up! – TR

• charlabob December 1, 2008 (11:15 am)

  Actually a lot of us really appreciate features such as the gas price comparisons, along with the great local coverage WSB provides. It creates a localized realtime Consumers’ Report. There’s definitely something here for everyone — so, wsb, keep doing what you’re doing.

• celeste17 December 1, 2008 (11:45 am)

  I appreciate the gas price watch. It saves me the trouble of trying to remember where I saw a certain price. Keep up the good work TR.

• OP December 1, 2008 (12:30 pm)

  You know what else has gone down? The amount of whining about “obscene oil company profits” and “windfall profit” taxation silliness. Everything is exponential! ;-)

• P December 1, 2008 (1:37 pm)

  Del-I think that the WSB taking the time and money to drive all over West Seattle to report who has the best pricing is news worthy. First, it causes the competition to wake up and see what their against. Second, it saves me tons of time when I am driving around looking for the best deal, because I do drive all over west seattle every day. Third, it helps promote business in west seattle, meaning the lowest priced provider may experience increased sales. If I was a gas station, I would love this free advertising!

• Orin December 1, 2008 (1:55 pm)

  The California/Andover 76 is selling premium for $2.139. I filled my scooter there yesterday.

• WSB December 1, 2008 (2:18 pm)

  thank you! for volume’s sake, we have to do this as a “drive-by” survey, and it’s been something of a thorn that those two 76 stations stopped posting premium prices. we should probably just add a few minutes and drive in and squint at the pump, although we’ll certainly look suspicious pulling up, getting out, NOT filling up, and driving away …

• P December 1, 2008 (2:55 pm)

  I would just tell them that you are going to do a drive in (rather than a drive by) every week. Maybe that will get them to post the amount!

• Del December 1, 2008 (5:57 pm)

  Fair enough. It’s just a mentality that I’ve just never understood – caring so much about who has the cheapest gas in town. I could see if fuel is significant expense for your business, but I personally don’t care about a difference of pennies. And I am by no means Bill Gates.

  Isn’t there something weird and counter-productive about, as the poster above describes, driving around to find the cheapest gas?

• WSB December 1, 2008 (5:59 pm)

  Our car gets 30 mpg. We spend about half a gallon doing this (we have the route down to a science, a fairly efficient loop heading east, then north, then west, then back south to HQ). More than 5,500 businesses/households visit the site every day – more than 14,000 at least once a week. So we probably save a little gas for somebody somewhere :)

• datamuse December 1, 2008 (7:25 pm)

  Del, I commute 70 miles a day. I’ll grant you that I drive a Prius, and I’m not going to go enormously out of my way to save a few pennies per gallon, but this is still pretty valuable information for me.

  Since WSB regularly covers more interesting and important things and there’s no evidence that reporting gas prices takes away from this, I’m not sure what the problem is…? Besides, who knows what other interesting stuff they might see while driving around? Time-honored newsgathering technique, that.

• David December 1, 2008 (10:13 pm)

  Everyone knows about http://www.gasbuddy.com – Right? Great site.

• WSB December 1, 2008 (10:39 pm)

  In my old-media days, we were always investigating sites like that for possible partnerships. Problem is that the data is not comprehensive. I see at least four West Seattle stations missing when I put in a WS zip code – and instead of just bringing up what West Seattle stations they DO have, it brings up stations citywide. Which is great if you need to fill up close to work, whatever, and if you find these sites are helpful, awesome, but that’s why we do our survey once a week, for a comprehensive West Seattle-specific baseline.

Sorry, comment time is over.