West Seattle, Washington
02 Wednesday
West Seattle gas prices are now as high as they ever got during last spring’s price pump-up — the top posted price for regular is $3.49 (Lincoln Park 76, photo at left), which is where it peaked in WS (at that station and 35th/Holden Chevron) last May. 
The top posted price for premium is $3.83 (Admiral Chevron), and 
the top posted price, period, is $3.95 for diesel at two Shell stations (Delridge and Roxbury, photo at right). The lowest posted gas price in WS is $3.25 for regular (Delridge Arco, photo at left). All this is from our survey late last night; with prices now matching last year’s high, we thought it was time to take baseline checks of the price range at all WS stations:Read More
Despite the most recent round of fuss that we were bound to finally break $4/gallon someday soon, West Seattle gas prices have been on the decline again. Tonight, we spotted two places below $3 for a gallon of regular unleaded — the Admiral/California Chevron (photo left) and the Delridge Arco. That’s 13 cents below the current Seattle average.
We haven’t updated the West Seattle Gas Price Watch for a while (past editions archived here) — prices would go up a bit, then go down a bit, and we figured wasting pixels on the seesawing might bore you. However, we were out doing other things a short time ago when what should appear through the downpour, between the furiously fast sweeps of our windshield wipers, but — a milestone worth mentioning: The first $2-something price in a while (photo at left). Yes, it’s “only” the Arco on Delridge, but still.
They’re your one-stop shop for holiday gifts and all kinds of other surprises. Fauntleroy Church is having a bazaar and bake sale today, 8 am-6 pm, to coincide with the visit of voters (but everyone’s welcome even if you don’t vote there), Another one of the upcoming bazaars you’ll find on the WSB Events page still has room for more vendors: The Holiday Gifts & Crafts Bazaar at Elizabeth House in High Point, this Saturday, 10 am-4 pm (with a bake sale!) in the EH community room (map). One prerequisite: 10% of the proceeds must be donated to EH (find out more about it here). E-mail organizers Rose or Jean.
After seeing this article warning this time we really might be on the way to $4, we thought it was high time to survey the West Seattle stations again. Current range: from $3.05/gallon for regular at Arco on Delridge (photo at left) to $3.26/gallon for regular at the 35th/Holden Chevron (which back in May had this year’s highest-posted price for regular, $3.49/gallon). Both of those stations are up 22 cents/gallon since our last check 2 1/2 weeks ago.
As the photo montage above shows … many WS stations have suddenly jumped up past 3 bucks a gallon for regular unleaded. (Here’s why.) Fauntleroy/Alaska Shell, for example, has had at least two price hikes in the past day — one to $3-plus by late last night, then up to $3.12 as of first thing this morning. Delridge Arco still has the lowest price but as the photos below show, as of about an hour ago, its signs don’t really agree on what the price actually is (we didn’t stop to check the pumps):
Looks like nobody in West Seattle really had the heart to break the 3-buck barrier. Most stations’ prices are heading back down again; the title of “lowest posted price for regular unleaded” belongs to Delridge Arco (photo right) at $2.79. That’s no surprise, but this is: The highest posted price for regular unleaded is at 35th/Barton Exxon, at $2.97. The Lundberg Survey says the national average for unleaded regular is $2.75, after sliding 4 cents in the past 2 weeks. That’s fairly close to what we’ve seen since our last update two weeks ago (Delridge Arco has actually dropped 6 cents). Still a ways to go to make it to what was the lowest point since we started watching prices, $2.60s back in August.
Time to get back on the horse and resume galloping around WS checking on gas prices, now that the price of regular unleaded is perched on the precipice of 3 bucks once again, after bottoming out in the $2.60s just six weeks ago. Two 76/Conoco Phillips stations in WS share the honors of highest per-gallon price for that grade as of late this morning, Fauntleroy/Alaska (left) and Lincoln Park. At the low end of the scale is Arco on Delridge, by Home Depot, $2.85/gallon for regular unleaded as of late morning. We’ve seen prices past $3 in other parts of town; the latest national coverage suggests prices won’t be dropping again any time soon.
Arco on Delridge (photo left) is back in the position of “low price leader,” at $2.65/gallon for regular as of this morning. The Fauntleroy/Alaska Shell station’s brief dip into the $2.60s was some odd fluke, as a few days after this post, it was back up into the $2.70s, where prices at both Fauntleroy/Alaska stations are today. If the latest national/world reports on gas/oil price trends are any indication, we might even see $2.50s before long. Interesting to note we were nudging THREE-fifty, just three months ago.
The new holder of the “lowest posted price for regular gas in West Seattle” title is … Shell @ Fauntleroy & Alaska (photo right). It’s been in a price war of sorts with the kitty-corner 76 for a few weeks — one would drop a couple cents, the other would match or edge lower — but suddenly sometime since this morning, the Shell slashed its prices and now sells regular for $2.69. That’s six cents cheaper than the station that had been the low-price titleholder for a while, Arco on Delridge, which is at $2.75.
We’ve mentioned before that Delridge Arco, besides usually having the lowest posted gas price in WS (though one reader warned, that can be negated by a surcharge for using plastic), has quite the challenge for those tasked with changing its price signs: They have to change four sets of numbers, one on each side of its two big signs. If one particular digit appears too often — well, see our picture to witness the results. (The backward and missing digits are supposed to be 9’s.) Arco’s $2.79 is still the lowest in WS; next up, Admiral Chevron at $2.87 as of last night, with many others following at $2.89. Speaking of numbers, interesting Times story today about what kind of profit station operators apparently are NOT making off these prices.
Looking around at WS pump prices for our now-weekly update, we reflected a bit on what was happening when we started WSGPW with this post three months ago — prices were skyrocketing. 
The highest posted price for unleaded in WS peaked in mid-May, when two stations sold it for $3.49. Tonight, one of those stations, 35th/Holden Chevron, is fifty cents lower (left photo); the lowest posted price in WS tonight is at Delridge Arco, $2.83 (right photo), down 54 cents from its May 11 peak. If you’re interested in the whys and wherefores, this article tries to explain what’s been going on in the gasoline industry.
We haven’t updated WS gas prices for a while; the price situation has stayed relatively stable. Arco on Delridge by Home Depot retains the title of WS Gas Station With The Lowest Posted Price, $2.87 as of early this afternoon (photo left); more than half a dozen other stations are in the $2.90s. This all puts us way below the state that now has the highest prices in the nation (Nebraska!), and even below the national average.
While several other stations that had been selling regular below $3/gallon have now stepped back up over that mark, Delridge Arco keeps dropping. The $2.91 shown below is 18 cents below the current Seattle average (according to AAA).
Delridge Arco has dropped a couple more cents, to $2.93/regular; however, both of the Fauntleroy/Alaska stations have popped back up over three bucks, while remaining below the statewide average.
Or at least you would have to assume that’s why yet another station — 35th/Avalon 7-11, in this case — just swapped out its manual priceboard for something electronic:
Delridge Arco is back in the low-price lead (photo below), with a bonus mystery price:
–Sidewalk Cinema has finalized the list of what it’s showing during the West Seattle outdoor movie series in July and August.
–The Seattle Chinese Garden project near SSCC in east WS just got $1.2 million from one of Seattle’s sister cities (Chongqing, China).
–The P-I paid a visit to our gas-war intersection (Fauntleroy/Alaska, still both below $3 as of our last driveby a few hours ago).
Just drove through Fauntleroy/Alaska and spotted both stations suddenly down below $3 for regular — $2.99 at 76, $2.98 at Shell (that’s more than a dime since our last driveby a few hours earlier). Will check the previous low-price leader, Admiral/Cali Chev, in a bit (sightings, anyone?).
OK, so it’s $2.99 diesel at Admiral/Cali Chevron, but that’s still below three bucks. And regular isn’t far behind — now down to $3.05 (left photo). At least two other WS stations are down to $3.09 for regular — Cali/Andover Exxon and Delridge Arco, where (right photo) the guy with the thankless job of fixing 12 sets of numbers with every price change was busy again, just moments ago. How low will it all go? Maybe not much lower, if you believe the national reports. But on the other hand, it’s worth noting that suddenly West Seattle gas prices are significantly below the Seattle average.
As noted in a comment on our last WSGPW post, Admiral/Cali Chev has plunged further, now down to $3.09/regular. And Delridge (by Home Depot) Arco is no longer the second-lowest; it’s still $3.15, but Exxon at Cali/Andover is down to $3.11, and Charlestown/Cali 7-11 has posted $3.12. Note the key word “posted.” A WSB reader e-mailed to say he filled up with one of the higher grades at that 7-11 tonight before noticing the pump price was higher than the sign price. Prices have been changing so fast – check before you pump.
That’s what they used to call it when we were much, much younger – gas stations in something of a price-cutting competition. Right now the WS deathmatch seems to be between Admiral/Cali Chevron and Delridge Arco. But at least as of minutes ago, Delridge hasn’t dropped all the way down to match Admiral/Cali’s $3.13 — Arco’s two cents above that. Meantime, here’s a bigger price photo than usual, just ’cause we like the composition.
In our spot checks within the past 12 hours, Delridge Arco (left) is now matching Admiral/Cali Chevron at $3.17, the lowest posted WS price for regular that we’ve seen. Several others are close – Charlestown/Cali 7-11 is down to $3.18, and the Fauntleroy/Alaska stations were below $3.20 when last we looked.
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