Greater Victoria’s gas prices have been going crazy since June 2011, when the ‘all stations at the same fixed price’ regime ended.
Since then, prices have fluctuated wildly.
Since the new year, it has been one brand driving both ends of the market – Chevron stations are usually the first to drop the price a little each day, and they are also usually the brand to crank the price up in a massive jump.
Case in point: on Tuesday Feb. 21, Chevron put the price lower to 103.9 at 8 a.m., but at 9 a.m. they jumped up 20 cents to 123.9. Now the prices will dribble slowly downward again for the next week or so. An absurd marketing strategy indeed.
Area drivers seem not to know what to do with such prices, but the strategy seems simple enough – never fill up when the price has just gone up. Simply wait for it to come down again in a week or so, and fill up then (buy only $10 if you need some in the meantime).
Roel Hurkens
Victoria