There is this gas station on 123 and during the middle of the summer I got gas there on a regular basis. It sort of became my go to gas station because I drive by it multiple times on my work route and it is easy to get gas there and it is also and Exxon and accepts Safeway points, but then as summer started to wind down I noticed something. Other gas stations started to lower their prices. Just a couple weeks ago $3.50 in Manassas was a deal but then suddenly gas in Centerville was $3.50 and then $3.50 hit Fairfax. In case you are wondering gas in Manassas is now $3.20, but there this gas station off of 123 sits still charging $3.89.
It is weird to see, because there is always someone there getting gas. I should mention again that this gas station is on 123 and not only that it is on 123 in Oakton. There is a gas station next to a Giant less than 100 feet away charging $3.65 which is still high for the area but it isn't $3.89. In many ways I wish my phone wasn't a piece of crap so I could take a pitcher of this and prove this madness to everyone, but I can't.
There are many factors that may go into the weird overcharging from this gas station. The first is that they are getting away with it. Like I said every time I drive by there is at least one car there getting gas. They obviously aren't losing much business by overcharging even if a person were to drive either way on 123 they would be at a cheaper gas station in five minutes or less, but these drivers seem unaware of that. Again this is in the middle of Oakton, on 123, close to downtown Fairfax, and downtown Vienna. It isn't like there are a shit ton of other gas stations close, and they all charge less, much fucking less.
The only other reason I can think of for this is that the gas station attendant lives at the gas station, was born in the gas station, and has no idea that there is a rest of the world out there. That they raise and lower their prices independently and because no one has stopped buying gas from them, except me, they haven't noticed that their prices are ridiculously out of line with the rest of the county. They believe this gas station is the world and travels show up bringing strange tales of Chipolte burritos and Chick-Fil-A sandwiches. These are things they have no idea about because the gas station is the only world they've ever known and to even cross the street is too frightening.
My guess is the reason they do it is they are getting away with it. No one has bothered to stop and think that they are paying $0.40 more a gallon than they would just up the road. No one is stopping to bother and think about this because there are people in Fairfax county that do things like buy baseball jerseys with a conglomeration of five players' names on the back. People in this area have so much disposable income that they never even bother to look at the price at gas stations because if they did they may be shocked to learn they are paying 11% more for gas.
The issue with me is that I do care, and this is the first time I have ever seen something like this in my life. I have seen gas prices higher at one station than the next but the max is normally around $0.10 more. I've never seen it $0.40 more in the same county let alone just up the street. It is very bizarre in many ways and the fact that it has now been at this high price for a couple weeks makes me doubt if they will ever adjust. It is fine it will be the holiday season soon and gas prices everywhere will go back up and they will then be in line with the rest of the county. That is of course if they don't decide to adjust up at that time. I have a feeling I am always going to be watching this gas station. They've set themselves so out of line with reality that they have to be watched.
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