There’s never any lack of demand for gasoline — Marketplace

I was looking at the beverages in the WinCo on Myrtle Street the other day when I overheard a conversation between two competitors talking about the strategies their particular companies were using to push the product.

Now, mind you, these two were not the corporate people or the marketing people, but rather the guys who stock the shelves and make certain their displays stand out a bit.
If you’ve bought soda pop lately, you’ve noticed the prices have inched higher and higher until a 20-ounce bottle has topped $1. For those of us who consume “diet” brands, it’s no worse since we “gotta” have a fix once in a while.
These two guys were rather vocal about the costs and how corporate officials think all they need to do is raise it a penny or two and all will balance out.
The one man, dressed in a red shirt, said, “They just don’t get it. People are tired of paying higher prices, so if they put their prices lower, they could sell more product and in the long run make larger profits.”
The guy in the blue shirt replied, “Yeah, but then we’d have to stock more product.”
And the guy in the red shirt replied, “Yeah, and there never seems to be a shortage of demand for (the product). People just want to buy it no matter what the price is.”
Two reasonable people doing their jobs and they have all the insight on the whole gasoline pricing problems.
We hear talk all the time about the supply and demand situation driving up the price of gasoline, but I never have to wait in line to fill up. There is no shortage.
We hear that the production plants are running at full capacity and shipping all the product they can manufacture.
We hear that Iran has opened up the field and is producing more crude oil, so the refineries have more.
But, as the guy in red said, “There never seems to be a shortage of demand.” Curbing  the purchasing habits of individual drivers will have more impact on the gasoline prices than  anything in the pipeline. Reducing driving will increase product as simply as anything.
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To contact the author, write e-mail to robb.hicken@idahobusiness.net.