Thursday May 22, 2003: Well, Safeway out in Fair Oaks is challenging for the lowest price in town, but it has been down there for so long that everyone else in town is closing in on them. Very little action for the last week, but tomorrow is Friday, so hopefully there will be a gutsy station that wants to rule the city.

I've decided to start a contest to try and get some new leads in town. Check out the FABULOUS PRIZES!

 

Sunday May 11, 2003: The great News and Review article about Sacramento GC came out on Thurs, May 8, and a couple of good leads have come from it. In particular station #041, #042, and the amazing Safeway Station #045. Safeway has a particular appeal because brand-conscious consumers will have a hard time claiming the Safeway gas is "cheap" or "watered down".

 

 

Thursday, May 1, 2003: Two stations are tied for the lowest price now. $1.76 per gallon.

I added a little calculator to the distance equation page. Try it out, it is at the bottom of the page. I've also updated the Sacramento Cheap Gas Map so that you can click each red dot for more information.

Wednesday, April 30, 2003: One station has been leading the pack for more than 2 weeks now, making things a little boring, but predictable. Yesterday afternoon, Jeff Kearns, A reporter with the Sacramento News and Review came on a gas-watching ride-along to get an idea of how things are going.

He had a load of amazing, well-researched information specific to Sacramento Gas prices, so if you are interested in Sacramento Gasoline, you'll definitely want to read his article when it is published.

The lowest price in town dropped on Saturday, down to $1.76 per gallon.

 

 

Wednesday, April 23, 2003: A little action today. Chris wrote in to let me know that Station #040, CJ Gas was down to $1.86. My favorite stations dropped their price 4-5 cents, too. I talked to a writer at the Sacramento News and Review yesterday, maybe some press coverage is on the horizon. If you haven't tried the gas connoisseurs phone system, you should give it a try. Write this down and keep it in your car: 800-303-9987, and the PIN is 700572. Call before buying gasoline in Sacramento.

Jeff Donenfeld wrote to let me know that gasoline is sold by the liter in Spain (although he didn't mention the price) and Craig Adams wrote to tell me about his hometown Grangemouth, Scotland. He said that the gas closest to the refinery is more expensive, and consumers chalk it up to being "fresher". Ha ha ha!

Monday, April 21, 2003: The lowest price is still $1.86. I've come to expect the very lowest price from one of three stations in town: either 

  1. Choice Gas & Mini Mart at Del Paso and Arden (#039)
  2. Stop and Shop on Folsom and 34th (#003) or 
  3. Franklin Gas and Shop at Franklin and 25th. (#033)

One more person signed up over the weekend to look after a station or two on Auburn Blvd. Hooray! I'd love to get someone to check up on the Cheap independents on Stockton Blvd and in West Sacramento.

Also, Ming Hsueh wrote and pointed out that if you use a Shell MasterCard from CitiCards credit card, you can get 5% off refunded from the price of your Shell gas. Thus if you spend $19.99 on ten gallons of $1.99 Shell gasoline, you will be refunded $1.00 on your shell card, to be used towards more gasoline. In effect this drops the price at Shell stations about a dime per gallon. If you are unable to forgo the luxury of a first-class gas station, consider this option. The phone number to apply is 1-866-Get-Shel.

Costco gas in South Sac was at $1.88 today with long lines. People love that place, but Sac Gas Connoisseurs always know a lower price. :)

Oh yeah, and here is the link to the entire matrix of the 40 cheap gas stations in town and their prices. Yes, I need help filling out the blanks.

 

Friday, April 18, 2003: Ah ha! With some help from the brilliant Paul Adams (mail) of Manhattan, the Sacramento Gas price-check phone system is up for testing.

Give it a try, particularly if you are in Sacramento. The number is 800-303-9987, and the PIN is 700572. This is updated with the lowest-priced station on the daily pop-up, and it should be a convenient way to check gas prices from the field, although you shouldn't call while you are actually driving. You could kill a bicyclist that way.

There are two . . . no, three new Gasoline Connoisseurs, bringing the total to five. More are needed. I put together a nifty 50-page paper pad I'll send free to the first eight helpers. Two photos below. Sign up on the Contact page.

 

Thursday, April 17, 2003: Well, there are certainly some dissenters, and not much positive action so far. An ambitious station on Del Paso, Station #039 set the low mark at $1.89 and that's been the bottom for a few days now. Many stations are at $1.91.

Megan Fidell send some very good arguments against this scheme. I'll post them here somewhere. She also sent me to energy.ca.gov. Check out the "unbranded dealer's cost and profit margin" for the week of April 14th.

David Edelstein hipped me to http://autos.msn.com/ (login may be required) which has a neat gas price tracker. It reports gas prices at any zip code and apparently it gets info from credit card receipts. Some of my favorite cheapys aren't listed, perhaps because they only accept cash.

Gas is about ~$5 in Norway and $4.60 in the UK. They aren't impressed with my complaining.

Tuesday, April 15th, 2003: Whoo! The site finally launched today! Guphy has claimed station #008, the Speedbird on Northgate and West El Camino. I have high hopes for local participation. I made a nice price-graph for this page.

I'd like to set up voice mail for this project, so that people can call in with new low prices. If anyone has a cheap voicemail service, please send me details.

 

More information about Sacramento Gas Connoisseurs:

This page last updated May 22nd, 2003 | Copyright © 2003 Rob Cockerham |

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