How old does a DUer need to be to know what a gas war was at local filling stations?

[Omaha Steve]

I'm 57 and I remember.

7 votes, 0 passes | Time left: Unlimited
	60's
	1 (14%)
	50's
	5 (71%)
	40's
	1 (14%)
	30's
	0 (0%)
	0 DU members did not wish to select any of the options provided.
Show usernames Disclaimer: This is an Internet poll

[bemildred]

1. Aware of such things no later than 1975 or so, I would think, hence born before 1960.

Or so.

[louis c]

2. Love your avitar

[Omaha Steve]

16. Just $1

No S&H charge. And you get a copy of their printed newsletter.

[pipoman]

3. Gas prices are ignored

as an anti trust issue, as are a lot of consumer level anti trust and price fixing issues in the market.

[dixiegrrrrl]

4. If we had gas wars today

does that mean the WH would drone gas stations????

[Art_from_Ark]

5. I remember gas being as low as 19 cents during a gas war

1968, in Northwest Arkansas.

[Buns_of_Fire]

6. The embargo of 1973 pretty-much killed the concept.

Along with attendants, free maps, dishes, mugs, silverware, and clean rest rooms.

I even remember a local place having a pump with 97-octane gas. I put some in my Mustang, just to see what would happen. I imagine the car liked it, but I'd be damned if I was going to spend two bucks per gallon on a regular basis.

[Recursion]

8. We had them in the 90s

Maybe they weren't the gas wars of yore, but they took up a lot of signage and drove the last few indie filling stations out of business.

[TheCowsCameHome]

9. The gas wars in the 1950's were classic.

Good times back then.

[RebelOne]

10. I remember the gas wars in the '50s.

And if I am remembering correctly, gas went down to the single digits.

[TheCowsCameHome]

21. Can you imagine that?

Wow. It sounds like make-believe when you think about it.......

Suddenly I feel waaaaaaay old.

[Spider Jerusalem]

12. older than 30-something probably

as noted above, we had them in the '90's. At one point in 1998 the price of regular unleaded (in Georgia, this was, which had low state taxes) was down to 63.9 cents a gallon (inflation-adjusted that's probably the lowest it's ever been, the equivalent of 16 cents a gallon in 1973 dollars, for reference).

[fizzgig]

19. i remember paying 87 cents a gallon or so in nebraska in 98 or 99

it was 95-99 cents in colorado when i got my license. i'm a younger 30-something and remember when i could fill my tank, get a soda and still get change from a $20.

[ctsnowman]

13. They went

away and so did the cola wars. Why does the word collusion come to mind?

[El_Johns]

18. +1

[madokie]

14. During those times the cheapest I seen it was 11 cents a gallon

mind you I was way too young to buy any. The lowest price I actually paid was 17.
I'm a '48 model, worked at the local gas station in high school where the everyday price was mostly in the upper 20 cent range, during gas wars it would drop to the lower 20 cent range.

Back then most people bought gas by the gallon rather than by the dollar. They'd pull up and say give me 5 gallons or 10 gallons with some of the commuters saying fill'r up. Mostly it was by the 5 gallon though. Back then a soft drink was six cents if it was a small coke, dime if it was a 12 ounce bottle of something else, with a bag of chips or a candy bar a nickle.

A new tire was 20 bucks, a retread for 12 to 15 bucks. New battery was 15 to 20 bucks. Quart of oil was 40 to 50 cents, oil filter was 50 cents.

Working off memory here so I could have a figure or two off but mostly I think there all correct.

Started at 40 cents an hour and by the time I went into the service I was getting a whole buck an hour. More money than I could spend.
Hell back then you could get a hamburger, fries and a coke and get some change back from a dollar.

[Jesus Malverde]

15. I had to get to the bottom of the thread to realize this was about competition between stations..

I thought at first it was fighting in lines during the gas crisis.

Competition...no fucking way.

[MisterP]

17. we have three gas stations within 40 feet of one another, so they seem to rotate

as to who has the cheapest gas

[MineralMan]

20. When I was 19 (1964-5), I managed a gas station

in Santa Barbara for a couple of months, while the owner went on a jaunt to Alaska. His rule was, "Nobody undersells us." Well, the guy who owned the gas station across the street from the one I managed found out that the owner was out of town, and decided he'd start a price war.

Well, I had my orders from the owner, so the price for a gallon of Regular kept going down. It didn't matter to me, because it wasn't my money, but it mattered to the owner of the station I managed. His rule was his rule. As was the owner's habit during price wars, I ran a big newspaper ad every day declaring that you could not find a lower price for gasoline anywhere in the city than at our station.

When it got to 11.9 cents a gallon, the guy across the street gave up and kicked his prices up to what was a reasonable price for gasoline in that place at that time. I raised prices at the station I managed to 2 cents less than his price. The price war was over, but not until it had lasted for two entire weeks.

We pumped more gas in those two weeks than we had in several months before the war started. The owner of the station I managed had almost half a million dollars in the business checking account, so it wasn't much of a deal to him.

When he came back, he gave me a bonus for making the price war work.

And that was independent gas stations in the mid 1960s. The owner of the one I managed was a character study of the first order. A very interesting man.

[Aerows]

22. I don't know what that is

I was born in the early 70's.

[Jenoch]

23. I don't remember any gas wars,

ut I grew up in a small town and I think the gas station owners all got along with one another.

I do remember my dad telling my brothers and me "when gas gets up to .50¢ a gallon, those snow machines are gonna go." We had three snowmobiles and went through a lot of gasoline. I don't know how people can spend that much money on snowmobiles and fuel today.