West Seattle, Washington
03 Sunday
Thanks for the tip. Signs at the two co-owned Chevron stations in Admiral (41st/Admiral, shown above, and California/Admiral) are displaying prices above $5/gallon. These are outliers in West Seattle so far as we can tell from driving the arterials – the (corrected) Chevron station at Delridge/Orchard is the only one close, with a $4.99 on its sign.
Most others are considerably cheaper. National updates say the average nationwide price may break a record this week. Way back in the volatile times of 2008-2009, we published weekly gas-price checks, long before sites/apps specializing in that popped up; the $4-plus records were set in mid-2008, but by late 2008, prices were dropping below $2.
Gas is what’s going up, while oil keeps going down; this week, all but one station in our West Seattle-wide survey is charging more, though oil is selling for less than a week earlier. General sense seems to be, that’s happening because refineries are producing less since people are using less. Whatever’s up, here are the prices, lowest to highest:Read More
Within the past few days, the last of the sub-$2 gas prices have vanished. Ahead, for the first time in 2 months, we have surveyed all West Seattle gas stations (except for Exxon at 35th/Barton, where the pumps are cordoned off – we’ll check tomorrow on whether that’s temporary or permanent), and found most prices up more than 30 cents a gallon in that timespan, even though the price of oil is lower:Read More
While heading to Sodo for tonight’s school board meeting, we spotted the first West Seattle regular-gas prices to creep back past $2/gallon – both stations at Fauntleroy/Alaska (including the 76, seen at left). We haven’t done our regular Sunday night price surveys for a few weeks because of the weather woes, but hope to get back on track starting this weekend. (The F/A 76, for comparison’s sake, was at $1.89/regular when we last did a survey 12/8, but that wasn’t quite the bottom of the curve – we saw some $1.60s and $1.70s around WS before the new price rise began.)
Gas prices continue to drop — the national average is its lowest in five years, according to weekend reports — but they’re falling more slowly; two West Seattle stations actually have the same prices as they did during our last survey a week ago. As for everybody else, varying drops. In the list you’ll see ahead, the first number is regular, as posted on the stations’ streetfront signs; second number is premium (where posted)Read More
For the first time since we started surveying West Seattle gas prices, every station in WS is selling regular for less than $2 a gallon. The price-drop rate was slower this past week than in previous weeks, but it did continue, and $1.83 (photo left) is the cheapest price in this area as of late Sunday night. Read on to see who’s where overall, as December begins:Read More
Four West Seattle gas stations are selling regular for less than $2, as of our weekly survey a few hours ago. (We’re still over the national average detailed in this report.) Read on for our full list (with posted prices for regular and premium), including comparison numbers for previous weeks/months:Read More
Thanks for the tips that Delridge Arco, at $2.09 just last night, has dropped a dime since then and is now the first $1.99 gas spotted in West Seattle. (We cut the photo short but in case you’re wondering, midgrade is $2.19, premium $2.29.) ADDED FRIDAY: By this morning, at least two other stations were down to $1.99, including “Ruxbury” Gasoline – thanks to Sky for sharing this pic:
First sighting of $2.0-something gas in West Seattle – Delridge Arco within the past hour, right after we left the Delridge Neighborhoods District Council meeting at nearby Southwest Precinct. Exactly 24 hours earlier, after we left the West Seattle Crime Prevention Council meeting at SWP, it was $2.13, which was a two-cent drop from when we drove by during the daytime Tuesday. (We did one price check in November of last year, at which time the same station came in at $3.05; the AAA pricetracker also has the current citywide average at exactly a dollar less than this time last year.)
Another week of double-digit price drops – with most prices about a full dollar lower than a month earlier. Read on for our list of West Seattle gas stations’ prices (for regular and premium) as of a few hours ago (with comparison numbers for previous weeks/months):Read More
Just back from an errand break, during which we spotted two signs worth passing along, even though neither is a surprise – Delridge Arco has broken into the $2.10s (how long till $1.99?), and Zeeks Pizza has finally put up “coming spring 2009” signage at its future location, the ex-Corner Inn (Fauntleroy/California; we first reported their West Seattle plans back in September, thanks to a tip from Rick).
Considering the lowest posted gas price in West Seattle on our latest late-Sunday-night weekly survey is less than a quarter away from being sub-$2 — with prices having dropped about 2 dollars since their peak less than 5 months ago — that’s not such a ridiculous question to ask. Read on for our full list of West Seattle gas stations’ prices (for regular and premium) as of a few hours ago (with comparison numbers for previous weeks/months):Read More
A recent note asked whether we knew why work crews like that one appeared to be drilling around Roxhill Elementary School. We took the question to Seattle Public Schools‘ communications team what they could tell us, and they finally got to the bottom of it, so to speak: The crews are checking whether any gasoline from tanks at the recently reopened “Ruxbury” gas station across the street seeped into the water table. David Tucker from the school district says they’re only working on weekends, and whatever they find, it’s no danger to the school or its students/staff because water used there doesn’t come from the site. We’ll be checking further on the extent of the investigation. Meantime, at another gas station a couple miles north, a new price milestone:
Gas prices are truly falling, in more ways than one, at Delridge Arco, first West Seattle spot where we’ve sighted a price in the $2.20s. Will we see sub-$2 gas? Any bets? Tomorrow night, by the way, we’ll be making the rounds for our usual Sunday night price survey of all West Seattle gas stations (here’s last week’s – Arco has dropped 20 cents since then).
Here are the results of our weekly Sunday night drive-by survey of posted regular and premium prices at West Seattle gas stations; prices are still sliding, but more slowly than the previous week. The biggest price drop of the week was 36 cents/gallon (3 stations), compared to 44 cents last week. Even more notably, only one non-diesel price, at one West Seattle station, remains above $3.00; everything else is 2-something, as you’ll see in the list ahead:Read More
Quick note while we stop briefly at WSB HQ during Halloween coverage (2/3 of the team) and WSHS football coverage (the other third’s there, reporting frequent updates at twitter.com/wsbbizdev, score here when it’s over, plus full wrapup): Gas at Arco and 76 on Delridge, 2.49/regular. We also have been to 4th Avenue Costco, where it was 2.43 (photo left). Anyone want to bet yet if we’ll go below $2? (P.S. Back on the Halloween theme – we’ve gotten a dozen trick-or-treaters here in Upper Fauntleroy within barely 10 minutes. Big change from years past.)
As expected, our Sunday-night survey of West Seattle gas stations revealed major price slippage in the past week — the biggest, a 44-cent drop (at the station where we just had the first $2.60-something sighting, Arco on Delridge, photo left). Read on to see where the stations were at as the weekend ended, and how that compared to where they were this time last week:Read More
Minutes ago at Arco on Delridge. Down eight cents from a day earlier, down 28 cents since the time of our weekly West Seattle-wide gas-price check on Sunday night. (With most West Seattle stations now below $3 for regular, we’re notably below the AAA citywide average.) Anybody want to bet on whether it’ll go below $2.50? Or dare we wonder, even below $2? 2:23 PM UPDATE: Hopey just texted to say it’s $2.79 at Costco.
Our first sighting of sub-$3 gas in this price-drop cycle – California/Charlestown 7-11. (Tuesday afternoon addendum – have since seen many sub-$3 WS stations, lowest is $2.93 at Arco and “Ruxbury.”) Got the tip from West Seattle Junction Association executive director Susan Melrose, who also revealed that the official Junction Christmas tree has been replaced:
The newly planted Fraser fir replaces the previous tree, which just hadn’t been happy in that spot and had gotten to the point where it was easy to imagine the poor thing catching fire if subjected to this year’s tree-lighting ceremony (even with low-heat LEDs). Elsewhere in The Junction, we spotted Halloween window decorations in the works at the Senior Center of West Seattle building:
Just around the corner, the Stop ‘n’ Shop is closed for several weeks of remodeling, with a grand reopening scheduled for November 15th (more soon on what’s in the works there).
Looks like we resumed the end-of-weekend gas-price survey runs just in time – driving around West Seattle 
a few hours ago, we discovered some stations had dropped prices for regular gas by 30 cents (or more) in the past week. At left, you see the lowest price we found (at the station that made news this past week for a different reason); at right, the highest. The full list, with April and June prices for comparison, ahead:Read More
FIRST SIGHTING OF WEST SEATTLE REGULAR GAS IN THE $3.10s: A short time ago at Gasco (35th/Henderson), it was down to $3.19. That’s a dime drop from their price at weekend’s end.
NOT EXACTLY ROSE-COLORED GLASSES: West Seattle entrepreneur Nate Eddings sent us his press release too, but we hadn’t gotten around to digitizing the profanity on his main product. Daily Weekly is PG-13 so they are showing his glasses in their full, um, glory.
AND THE WINNER IS … Channel 7’s 5 pm news tonight is scheduled to include the announcement of who won the Cox Conserves Heroes web vote. Thanks to everybody who voted for Fauntleroy’s Judy Pickens (and therefore for EarthCorps, which gets a $5K Cox donation if Judy wins).
Thanks to the tipster who called us about this sign that’s just gone up at the recently reopened former 76 station on ROXbury, a couple blocks east of 35th. Also worth noting, this is our first sighting of $3.20-something regular gas since the price plummet began.
In our first-in-a-while West Seattle-wide gas-price check published Monday morning, we noted that the Delridge Exxon was, at least temporarily, out of the gas business – its pumps removed, a construction fence around the service islands. A just-issued city permit explains what’s going on: like the Exxon at Andover/California did a few months back, this one is switching to 76.
Though we’ve posted the occasional spot price check here and there in the last several weeks, it’s been 2 1/2 months since our last Sunday night drive-by survey of posted regular and premium prices at all West Seattle stations. As prices start to fall faster, we thought this would be a good time to get back in the game; discovered in the process that many WS stations are now down about a buck from their June peak — and one station’s currently out of the gas biz. The full price list, lowest to highest, ahead:Read More
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