Gas, a penny a gallon?
By Carmela
@Carmelanirel2 (8084)
United States
February 16, 2016 8:11am CST
Yep, that isn't a typo. My husband heard about this on the news and told me how this gas station's computer had a glitch and removed a dollar from their price. The competitor across the street was not to be outdone, so they lower their prices and it got to where it was .49 a gallon to a penny a gallon. This occurred over a couple hours and as word spread, people starting coming to get filled up and there was one man who paid .13 for 13 gallons.
When I went to look it up online, it took a while, he couldn't remember the news channel or the area. I did find this link:
yet, as you can see, it doesn't have a lot of the information my husband heard.
The article mentions something about authorities having it shut down, so I guess unless there is a fire, the employee is not allowed to shut down? I wonder if that rule will be changed...
What do you think?
The Crystal Lake Northwest Herald reports a Shell station in Woodstock wound up mistakenly selling the nearly-free fuel for about two hours Sunday night.
11 people like this
11 responses
@Carmelanirel2 (8084)
• United States
16 Feb 16
Surely nothing like this? I mean we have been getting lower prices too, as low as 1.39, but not a penny a gallon. Of course using this store's fuel rewards points, we did get gas for .79 a gallon a couple months ago.
1 person likes this
@Lucky15 (37374)
• Philippines
16 Feb 16
@Carmelanirel2 i am trying to convert. From dollar to peso and from galloon to liter. Haha. Gas are sold here in liter
1 person likes this
@Carmelanirel2 (8084)
• United States
16 Feb 16
@Lucky15 Oh I hear you, I struggle with the same thing when people use metric or a different money system.. Have you converted it yet?
1 person likes this
@Carmelanirel2 (8084)
• United States
16 Feb 16
Oh no, I would have been right there as well. As for the employee, it says in the article "Woodstock Police Sgt. Dennis Leard says authorities had to use an emergency shut-off to stop the sales before the gas station closed in order to reset the pumps to regular prices." Now I am sure there is a shut off valve in case of a fire, so this leads me to believe that unless there was a fire, the employee didn't have permission to turn it off.
1 person likes this
@changjiangzhibin89 (16790)
• China
18 Feb 16
I can imagine that people were flocking to get filled up,because it was once in a blue moon .
1 person likes this
@changjiangzhibin89 (16790)
• China
19 Feb 16
@Carmelanirel2 It was not your fault.It was ironic that the competitor blindly got in on the act.
@Carmelanirel2 (8084)
• United States
19 Feb 16
@changjiangzhibin89 Yes, you would think that as the prices went down, the employees would get suspicious about why,unless it was all computerized and set up that id the competition lowers their price, the computer would lower the other companies.
1 person likes this
@Carmelanirel2 (8084)
• United States
18 Feb 16
Yes, I am sure they were. I know if I knew about it, I would be there. 
1 person likes this
@rebelann (112983)
• El Paso, Texas
25 Feb 16
Wow, that must have been great for the guy who got 13 gallons for .13, yesterday I paid 1.349 at Costco which I really liked, since my car gets 30 or more miles per gallon I'll be okay for at least another month.
I hope they don't raise gas prices anytime soon though, nobody on SS got a raise this year.
1 person likes this
@rebelann (112983)
• El Paso, Texas
25 Feb 16
I sure hope they don't this year @Carmelanirel2 we'll have a hard time if they do.
1 person likes this
@Carmelanirel2 (8084)
• United States
25 Feb 16
@rebelann Well, since it is about 1.60 now, if they raised it a little, we will be okay, but if it gets close to 3-4 dollars a gallon, then I probably will be here A LOT more often.
1 person likes this
@Carmelanirel2 (8084)
• United States
25 Feb 16
Yes, we are on a fixed income too, and hope they don't raise the prices, but they do anyways, every summer. 
1 person likes this
@Carmelanirel2 (8084)
• United States
17 Feb 16
Yes, our prices are low too, about 1.48 last I saw.
1 person likes this
@Carmelanirel2 (8084)
• United States
18 Feb 16
@simone10 Same here, it has been a long time that prices were lower than 2.00, and then it rose even higher, close to 4-5 dollars. That was scary, especially since I was driving to campus about 4 times a week.
1 person likes this
@simone10 (54187)
• Louisville, Kentucky
18 Feb 16
@Carmelanirel2 It's about the same here. It's kind of freaky to me because I can't remember the last time prices were that low.
1 person likes this
@fishtiger58 (29820)
• Momence, Illinois
16 Feb 16
wow that was a huge error on someones part. Gas here is currently 1.43 wow.
1 person likes this
@Carmelanirel2 (8084)
• United States
16 Feb 16
Yes, that is the average price here too and I find it amazing that though the cashier didn't catch on for a while, he or she was not allowed to shut the pumps off without the authorities permission.
1 person likes this
@fishtiger58 (29820)
• Momence, Illinois
16 Feb 16
@Carmelanirel2 How could the cashier not catch on right away. Everyone coming in buying 20 cents worth of gas. She should have know after the first customer.
1 person likes this
@Carmelanirel2 (8084)
• United States
16 Feb 16
@fishtiger58 Yes, I think once it got really low, she should have caught on..Then again, you know how some people are today...
1 person likes this
@Carmelanirel2 (8084)
• United States
16 Feb 16
Yes, I hope the employee didn't get fired, but then again, someone who bought 13 gallons and it only cost .13, that should have sent a red flag up. Then again, was the employee allowed to shut the pumps down? I don't know.
@Carmelanirel2 (8084)
• United States
16 Feb 16
I don't blame the people, in fact if any blame it should be the computer glitch. I shared what it is in the article in Jabo's thread, I guess unless there was a fire, it isn't allowed or something.
@MarshaMusselman (38865)
• Midland, Michigan
18 Feb 16
We heard a similar story about two stations near each other about two hours north of me in Michigan. Maybe a glitch in their computer caused it there also. For that one, we heard that one lowered it to about forty cents or so and the other lowered theirs too. It may have started out a bit higher and went down as the day progressed. THis happened a few weeks ago, so I don't think it was the same instance. THis took place last month here.
Lower gas prices come as the international price of oil fell below $30 per barrel
1 person likes this
@Carmelanirel2 (8084)
• United States
18 Feb 16
This one happened in Illinois, but I did see the article about the Michigan one when my husband told me about it. Too bad it didn't happen here.
1 person likes this
@Carmelanirel2 (8084)
• United States
18 Feb 16
Yes, but I think it only lasted a couple hours, so I'm sure they are okay financially...
1 person likes this
@RonElFran (1214)
• Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania
16 Feb 16
Sure they may be losing money on every gallon, but they'll make it up on the volume.
1 person likes this
@Carmelanirel2 (8084)
• United States
16 Feb 16
Oh, I don't know, depends on how many people got the fuel for .49 or less. I don't know how much profit a gas station gets, but there is a limit on price, even if they had customers 24/7
