Here's today's brain teaser. Maybe someone can help me out with it.
How is it that two Wawas, a little more than 10 miles apart, can sell gas with a dime difference in the price.
My daily commute brings me down West Chester Pike out of Chester County on my way to Primos.
I'm always checking things along the way, among them the price of gas. At the Wawa on West Chester Pike in Westtown, the price of regular is $3.59. But when I get close to the office here in beautiful downtown Primos, the Wawa at Bishop and Baltimore Pike is dispensing the liquid gold for 10 cents less, at $3.49.
I'm trying to figure out how exactly that can be.
Anyone have an answer?
Comments
If Wawa wants people to use their pumps, and thus enter their store to spend more money, they have to be competitive with the prices of the station across the street, not the other Wawa 10 miles away. So each Wawa will set its gas prices based on two things... first, the wholesale price of the gas. Second, the prices on the pump of the competitors across the street. Of course the price on the competitor's pumps will depend on when they purchased their wholesale gas, and those prices are volatile.