Gas sells for .33 cents in Wis.
By Tatsuya
@Tatsuya (1149)
United States
December 8, 2007 2:00pm CST
Dozens of drivers made a mad rush for cheap gas after a station employee accidentally changed the price to 33 cents a gallon.
An employee closing Trig's Minocqua Shell for the night mistakenly entered the price of a gallon of gasoline as 32.9 cents instead of $3.299 on Monday night.
He left about 10 p.m., but drivers could still use their credit cards to buy gas.
Word of the bargain spread fast in the rural northern Wisconsin community, with 42 people buying 586 gallons of gas in an hour and 45 minutes. One person had pumped 27 gallons and two purchased 18 gallons.
Local police saw the horde at the station and called store manager Andrea Reuland, who went to the station and pushed the emergency stop.
"There were cars two deep at each of my pumps," said Reuland, who knew many of the drivers and told them they were being dishonest — the main store sign had the correct price.
"I was very upset that there's that many dishonest people," she said. "They knew there was a problem, and they took advantage of an employee's mistake and I think that's terrible."
The employee, who has been there for about six months, had changed the gas prices 25 times in the past six months.
"It was an honest mistake," Reuland said. "I could have done it."
Area residents were still talking about it Friday morning.
"Was it you guys?" a woman in the station asked Reuland. "Why do I always miss the good stuff?"
1 person likes this
6 responses
@ravinskye (8237)
• United States
8 Dec 07
It may have been dishonest, but heck, with the price of guys these days I would have been all over that. I think its kind of funny it spread that fast.
@Thoroughrob (11742)
• United States
11 Dec 07
I am sure that people were thinking of getting a good deal, as we all feel like they are draining our pockets and think nothing of it. There is not many that would not have taken that opportunity, I'm afraid.
@highflyingxangel (9225)
• United States
9 Dec 07
It definitely is an honest mistake, but I hope they don't penalize the people who bought the gas for the mistake. For one, they didn't make it, they were just buying gas at what they thought was a great, great bargain. They'll just have to suck it up and be done with it.
@CraftyCorner (5600)
• United States
9 Dec 07
Sadly, many families are beginning to feel desperate with these high prices. The price of gas are beginning to cut past discretionary dollars spent on entertainment items into dollars that pay for necessary items of survival such as rent and food.
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The way the United States is set up, it is not easy to make the required changes either, because work places are set far from living places of many folk.
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Stories like this are going to be more common as gas prices hike higher until some changes come to the United States info-structure. A cost effective way for a company or corporation to do this is by having employees telecommute to work most days, investing in a low cost computer. Some are already doing this.
@oscarbartoni (2581)
• United States
9 Dec 07
We need to be less dependent on gasoline in this (and other) countries so that the price of gas will not stay artificially high. We need alternative sources of energy to keep from running out of oil that is in the Earth.