There’s a 1-mile stretch of road in Kennesaw with the cheapest gas in town -- and station owners willing to lose money to keep it that way.
While metro Atlanta’s average price is $3.84 a gallon, drivers in the know -- and those lucky enough to stumble across this cheap-gas oasis -- paid as little as $3.70 a gallon on Friday. Three cents less if they paid in cash.
Gas prices are high, sure. But along Cherokee Street in Kennesaw and in other places here and there around the metro area, competition creates pockets of lowball pricing where customers can ease the pain of filling up.
Michael Mason drove from Decatur to his Kennesaw home with his gas light on because he knew he could get it for less on Cherokee Street. Jerek Richard spotted a sign for one of the bargain sellers on his way to a pricier station. Angie Dempsey was so thrilled to find less-expensive gas that she posted a picture of the station sign to her Facebook page. A few hours later, she said, 12 people had “liked” her find.
“I just can’t believe it,” said Dempsey, who spied the $3.70-a-gallon Shell station during her shift as a school bus monitor. “It makes a lot of difference on my salary.”
Four stations on Cherokee Street sold gas for $3.70 a gallon on Friday, but according to GasBuddy.com there were also other pockets with similar prices. In Cartersville, five stations battled at $3.72 a gallon, and there was a $3.74-a-gallon price war in Lithia Springs.
At the other end of the spectrum, prices went as high as $4.29 at one Marietta station, according to the website.
The price of gas, which has risen 15 cents in the last month, may finally be steadying, said Gregg Laskoski, a senior petroleum analyst for GasBuddy. He said a lot of factors go into the price of gasoline, but that competition with nearby stations is still a big one.
“Nobody wants to be the guy at $3.75, if half a mile away it’s at $3.72,” he said. “It really pressures those stations into competition.”
The Kennesaw price war started several months ago, said Jad Kahla, who manages the Conoco Quik Stop in the middle of the action. That’s when new owners of the University Food and Beverage next door decided they needed to cut prices to gin up business. Kahla followed suit.
Just this week, he said, he dropped the price from $3.83 in response to his neighbors. Junaid Bhatti, a manager at University Food and Beverage, said he is lowering gas prices so people will buy more inside. But with fuel so expensive, he said, most shoppers are just coming for gas after seeing the low price online.
Half a mile down the street, Payal and Ankit Patel have priced their week-old Shell station to match the area lows, and they’re thinking of going lower for a grand opening Monday. The Circle M next door has gotten caught in the crossfire.
“It doesn’t matter how low they will go, I will go,” said Kahla, back at the Conoco. “I’m not going to lose this war.”
All four stations on the Cherokee Street mile said they are losing money on gas. Even at average market prices, gas stations make very little at the pump, bringing in most profit on the coffee and cigarettes sold inside.
Bob Raju, a cashier at the Circle M , blames the Conoco -- which he says does the most volume of the four -- for the low prices.
“If we don’t match him, we don’t get people here,” he said. “Right now, our hands are tied. There’s nothing we can do.”
Some operators don’t see it that way. Less than a mile from the Conoco in the other direction, Matt Lodin was selling gas at a Texaco station for $3.99 a gallon. His competition is on the other side of the freeway, he said, where BP charged 3.81 a gallon Friday and RaceTrac $3.77 a gallon.
“I would lose money if I do that,” Lodin said. “I don’t want to kill myself in order to compete.”
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