They were waiting on long lines for gasoline. They were paying near-record prices. And they were thrilled.
Why not be happy to pump gas at $3.93 a gallon when almost everyone else is paying more?
The Marathon gas station on the border of Evanston and Chicago seemed like one of the happiest places in town Tuesday, where as many as three or four cars were lined up at each of its pumps for a chance to pay one of the lowest prices in the area for a gallon of gasoline.
Just a mile or two up the road in Evanston, a Shell station was charging $4.19, but nobody seemed to be buying. Elsewhere in the city, stations have been selling gas for as much as $4.45, contributing to Chicago’s achievement this week of having the highest gas prices in the nation.
But business was so good at the Marathon station, located near Howard Street and Wolcott Avenue, that the owner and a mechanic were standing out front, directing vehicles to the station’s pumps to avoid a traffic jam on the street.
“It’s always busy here lately, and it’s a little frustrating, but it’s worth saving money,” said customer Dorothy Sims, 52, of Chicago, a part-time day-care provider. She was pleased with the savings, but added: “When you think about it, it’s still too much money.”
Other customers, such as Macey Smith, came from as far as Chicago’s Lakeview neighborhood. Smith, 24, a cashier, combined a visit to a local Jamaican bakery with her cheap gas purchase.
“I would drive to Indiana if [gas] was cheaper there,” said Smith. “This is the cheapest, nearest gas that I know of.”
With gas prices rising so dramatically, drivers have become more savvy about shopping around, using Web sites to compare prices and sometimes driving longer distances to find bargains. Sometimes they’ll drive too far, or take too much time in their quests, said Lars Perner, a marketing professor at the University of Southern California.
Because cars are so important to Americans, soaring gas prices gnaw at consumers because they either have to dig deeper into their pockets or drive less, Perner said. “That’s like taking your freedom away, and finding a lower price gives people more of a feeling of control,” he said, even if it takes a long time to drive to another station to save pennies per gallon.
More Top Picks Google Pixel Watch
Perner called the joy of finding a lower price “transaction utility” and said, “They get more pleasure out of a good deal than the product itself.”
As people pumped gas at the Marathon station, besides being happy with the price, they said they were driving less and saving money by not purchasing as much each visit.
Bushra Aljassar, 26, a recent nursing school graduate, said she only spends about $30 at the Marathon. “I never fill up and I know it’s the cheapest in this area.”
Ricky Webber, 53, of Rogers Park, who owns four cars and two trucks, said he remembers when gas was 92 cents a gallon. He only puts $20 to $30 in each vehicle.
“The last time I filled up one of my cars was four months ago,” he said. “If I’m waiting for someone, I turn my motor off.”
The Marathon station’s owner, who declined to give his name, also declined to discuss his reasons for offering a lower price, but clearly the station is pursuing a volume strategy. In late afternoons vehicles waiting to fill up spill into the street, the station owner said.
Jason Toews of GasBuddy.com, an Internet portal for local gas price sites, including ChicagoGasPrices.com, wasn’t surprised there was a dramatic disparity in pump prices between different stations in the same region
Differences can be caused by “zone pricing” in which refiners set different wholesale prices for retailers, partly based on the number of stations in the vicinity.
“Basically, it’s what they think the market will bear in that area and how much competition there is in that area,” he said from his office in Brooklyn Park, Minn.
“You can save money by knowing where to look,” said Toews, who still regrets an “impulse purchase” he made last year while visiting Chicago. After buying gas near the Kennedy Expressway, he found a station two blocks away that was 20 cents a gallon cheaper.
———-
– – –
IN THE WEB EDITION
To find the lowest gas prices in your area, go to chicagotribune.com/gas.