Why do people go crazy for cheap fuel when they are saving pittance?

Lemlin

Shop beside my estate reopened at the weekend and was selling petrol at 1.10 a litre as an opening offer. Cheapest to this is another shop about ten minutes drive up the road that sells it for 1.12. I'm not sure how much the diesel is but was also cheap.

What amazed me was the amount of people going to this shop all weekend. Any time I drove past it was full and a few friends commented that they were at the shop and actually saw people fighting over places in the line for petrol.

I'm just wondering why exactly? I went to the shop that sells petrol for 1.12 this morning as I always go there. I got 17 litres or so for €20 so, by my maths, if I went to the other shop I would have saved 34c! Why sit in a long queue and argue with people for less than a euro?

Sleipnir

Because by doing so, the retailer with the slightly more expensive fuel might drop his price.
If people didn't bother to go elsewhere, why would he drop his price?

LOTTOWINNER

"Look after the pennies and the pounds look after themselves"


Just wondering Lemlin, are you really from Cavan or did you move there from somewhere else?

Paulw

As Tesco says - "Every little helps".

All those cent add up at the end of the year too.

But, if a station is cheaper and not too far, I'd certainly go for the cheaper option, and let the more expensive one learn.

Market demand and all that.

flanzer

OP, this isn't 2000-2007 years. Consumers are no longer sitting around taking it up the ass.

horsebox1977

Not only that alot of these stations are selling food etc -
Tesco Kitkat - 52 cents
Topaz kitkat - around 1.15

PCPhoto

think about it..... a 2¢ per litre difference will mean that an average 40litre tank
- will mean 80¢ difference

....if you fill the tank once a week that works out at €41.60 per year.

maybe you can afford to spend money on the more expensive petrol station but on some occasions I've saved 8¢ and even 10¢ per litre compared to some other service stations.

if you can make a cut in petrol/diesel, and savings in food bills (ALDI/LIDL v Dunnes/Tesco v M&S etc etc), then you can put some money aside for if/when you need it.

I have always been watching out for the cheaper fuel (I use diesel)....sometimes I will pop into nearest station but most of the time I know what the other stations nearby are charging.

CountingCrows

horsebox1977 wrote: »

Not only that alot of these stations are selling food etc -
Tesco Kitkat - 52 cents
Topaz kitkat - around 1.15

But doesn't the Topaz Kitkat give you slightly more energy?

dcr22B

To be honest, even though it may be more expensive in certain areas of the country, I do my best to use Topaz fuel as I get more miles to the gallon out of it.

I tried three different stations when going from my house to Newry and back and the range computer on the car showed I had 30 extra miles with Topaz over Esso and Applegreen.

I know this might just be luck but on longer trips, I've consistently had better range with their fuels so in my eyes, cheap fuel isn't always the way to go.

adamski8

i agree with OP, funny i know people who will drive miles more to get a few cent cheaper and probably lose money with the fuel they burn, chumps!

r3nu4l

If you drive a lot of miles it adds up to more than pence (cents, in the oul sod of Ireland).
The difference between my two nearest stations is 2 pence per litre.

That's a difference of about £1 a tank or £4 a month or £48 a year.

So 2p a litre equates to a free game for the Playstation 3 for me. I consider it worth it. Here's something to think about, if a man on the street was handing out £50 notes to people who said hello to him and another man close by was giving nothing when you said hello, which one would you go to?


Earlier this year the gap was 4 pence a litre,
That's a difference of about £2 a tank or £8 a month or £96 a year. You telling me you'd refuse that handed to you?

Wha' chew talkin' 'bout Willis?

Lemlin

I can understand people wanting to save money but what I do not understand is:

1. People driving from far away to that petrol station to save money. If they fill their tank with, say, €60, they could be saving at most a euro, yet they are probably spending more than that in petrol to get there.
2. Why sit in a long queue with your engine probably running to save 2 cent a litre?
3. Why go to the trouble of arguing with someone else in the queue over 2 cent a litre?
4. Why queue at a garage which IMO will lead to a serious accident soon because it is located on a dangerous corner? Other garages in the area are located along the main N3 and have easy accessibility in/out, unlike this garage.

Some of the points on here I also can't agree with:

Not only that alot of these stations are selling food etc -
Tesco Kitkat - 52 cents
Topaz kitkat - around 1.15

I take your point but I never buy these items in any of these shops anyway.

OP, this isn't 2000-2007 years. Consumers are no longer sitting around taking it up the ass.

I don't think I am taking it in the ass by going to my regular garage which is about 6 cent cheaper than most other garages (alothough 2 cent more expensive than this garage) in the area and which I pass on my way to work. And, which also has plenty of space for me to fill my car unlike this garage where I would have to queue and where it is a nightmare to get back out onto the road as the garage is beside a turn off the N3 that is used alot.

Because by doing so, the retailer with the slightly more expensive fuel might drop his price.
If people didn't bother to go elsewhere, why would he drop his price?

Can't see this happening tbh. My regular garage is always about 6 cent cheaper than two other garages just up the road yet they never drop their prices. None of the other shops in the area seem to drop from 1.18 despite it being 1.12 for close to a month now. It is always cheaper. The other garages don't see to give a damn.

Donnelly117

I think its stupid to be honest. Its like the people who rush to the garages the night before the budget comes on to save a few cents filling up with pre-budget fuel. What do they do when this runs out wait for the next one to happen?

r3nu4l

Lemlin wrote: »

I can understand people wanting to save money but what I do not understand is:

1. People driving from far away to that petrol station to save money. If they fill their tank with, say, €60, they could be saving at most a euro, yet they are probably spending more than that in petrol to get there.
2. Why sit in a long queue with your engine probably running to save 2 cent a litre?
3. Why go to the trouble of arguing with someone else in the queue over 2 cent a litre?
4. Why queue at a garage which IMO will lead to a serious accident soon because it is located on a dangerous corner? Other garages in the area are located along the main N3 and have easy accessibility in/out, unlike this garage.

1. I drive about 0.5 miles
2. There's never a queue but if there was I'd switch off my engine
3. I leave that to the morons
4. My garage is located in a safe area.

Summary, none of that applies to me.

Again, I say, if it's saving me roughly £50 a year (and it has saved me over 200 pounds in the last 12 months) then I'll gladly do it. I'm lucky enough to live close to a cheap garage but if I only did 100 miles a week or something I probably wouldn't bother either

kippy

I'd always try get the cheapest option but I wouldnt go out of my way to do it, generally there are a few stations round Claremorris that I pass through regularily that I would fill up at if I were going past.

I usually end up buying a drink or snack in the station anyway so any saving is more than wiped out, and I find that this is usually the case with most people.

Andrewf20

adamski8 wrote: »

i agree with OP, funny i know people who will drive miles more to get a few cent cheaper and probably lose money with the fuel they burn, chumps!

Yep, Im on this boat too. I really couldnt be arsed waiting up to 10mins to get to a pump, which I see frequently at Tesco clare hall, when Topaz, 30metres away door are actually the same or very similar on price.

stealthyspeeder

Andrewf20 wrote: »

Yep, Im on this boat too. I really couldnt be arsed waiting up to 10mins to get to a pump, which I see frequently at Tesco clare hall, when Topaz, 30metres away door are actually the same or very similar on price.

I do the exact same at those garages! In my opinion its stupid, I know it all adds up, but filling up my car is a boring task that I dont get any particular kick from, so I dont want to be waiting around to do it! Im more than likely have better things to do, so wasting my time for a saving of under a euro each refill doesnt make sense to me!

Biro

I can understand people not bothering queueing to save 80c, but it always baffles me when there are two petrol stations beside each other, and one is 3 or 4c per litre more expensive, why the hell are people in it? I can't understand that.

scottledeuce

stealthyspeeder wrote: »

I do the exact same at those garages! In my opinion its stupid, I know it all adds up, but filling up my car is a boring task that I dont get any particular kick from, so I dont want to be waiting around to do it! Im more than likely have better things to do, so wasting my time for a saving of under a euro each refill doesnt make sense to me!

I agree again, It's simply not worth waiting in line to save 80cents on a tank of petrol and if your going to drive out of your way to do it then it's definitely not.

OK so you may save even 50 Euro's in a year??? By my logic, an extra 5 minutes a week waiting for petrol adds up to about 4 hours a year.

I think there is a lot more money to be saved in spending that four hours learning how to do a basic service on your car and that's before I take into account the time and money you spend getting to and from your garage for a service.

asdasd

So 2p a litre equates to a free game for the Playstation 3 for me. I consider it worth it. Here's something to think about, if a man on the street was handing out £50 notes to people who said hello to him and another man close by was giving nothing when you said hello, which one would you go to?

You are missing the cost of driving there.

Economists wonder about this too - it was in either the UnderCover economist, or Freakonomics. The question they asked was this:

1) Would you travel a small distance across town for cheap petrol, saving 50c.
2) Would you drive a small distance across town for a cheap playstation, saving 50c.

Or shop locally.

The people who said yes to 1) said no to 2). The experiment said that both offers were a once off ( so no cumulative savings here).

yet, the savings are the same out of your income / net worth. So what gives?

Obviously people think in percentages of the cost of the item, rather than the cost to themselves, as a percentage of their own income.

JohnThomas09

CountingCrows wrote: »

But doesn't the Topaz Kitkat give you slightly more energy?

nah it gives ya the Skitter..:)