lifestyles
Pricing war problems
Gas prices differ by streets and by days, affecting many KU students. Story by Jake Arnold.
Graphic by Micah Laaker and Matt Flickner.
T
there are some things that just are not talked about—such as sex, money and gas prices. While sex and money still make it into a few conversations, the source of gas prices is a touchy subject.
"I can't tell you anything," says Katy Ingle, manager of Zarco Phillips 66, 900 Iowa St. "It is company policy. I don't know anything. I just get a call telling me
the price."
Susie Coleman, vice president of EZ Shop at 3706 S.W. Topeka Blvd., in Topeka, which supplies EZ Shops in Lawrence, says it is against predatory pricing laws to reveal anything about
the pricing of their gas. She says people have been sued for seeking that kind of information.
Despite its importance to everyday lives, students often don't know how prices come to be. Many students, such as Bill Perkins, Atchison junior, are left wondering why such a disparity in gas prices exists.
"Prices are very important to me," Perkins says. "I commute 100 miles a day from Atchison."
Perkins says he watches prices carefully and wonders why gas is 87 cents a gallon in Kansas City and $1.12 a gallon in Atchison.
To a large degree, prices are determined by area competition.
Most gas stations in Lawrence have a chief competitor with which they try to keep pace. At the same time, those stations watch other stations, much like a serpent swallowing its tail.
For instance, Coastal Mart, 2301 Iowa St., eyes Total Petroleum, 846 Iowa St.
When Total dropped its price to 88 cents a gallon for its lowest grade
cents a gallon for its lowest grade unleaded, Coastal Mart quickly did so also. When total rose back to 40 cents, Coastal followed
"We try to be the lowest in the South," said Darren Lofts, Coastal Mart manager. "Total is the lowest in the North. We match Total."
However, Total sees itself as competing against the Phillips 66 next door.
"We try to stay cheaper than Phillips 66," said Tarlochan Gill, Total manager. "Always did. Always will."
Gill doesn't set the prices, though. He sends a daily listing of the fuel prices in his area to Bulk Petroleum in Wisconsin. The company determines the price partly from that information.
Many stations in Lawrence receive their prices in a similar way.
The KwikShop, 714 W23rd St., is one such station.
"I own the store, and I don't even determine the price," says Bob Carl. He gets his prices from a parent company in Hutchinson.
But some stations in town do have some control over their prices.
James Gill, owner of Gill's Amoco Food Shop,
2301 Louisiana St., can set his own prices, but he is still subject to outside pressures. The station reports prices along 23rd Street to its Amoco supplier in Kansas City. It especially keeps an eye on the Texaco, 1802 W 23rd St., which it considers its main competitor along 23rd.
The Kansas City office keeps an eye on Gill's prices and his competitors' and pressures him to keep his own in a reasonable range. If he sets them too high, it cuts into profits — too low and he could start a price war.
"Nobody wants a price war," says Eugene Ross,
"If people realized how much gas stations buy fuel for, they would have a heart attack, but you have to make a profit," he says.
Ross admits Amoco
Except maybe consumers.
makes a pretty good profit as one of the highest-priced stations in town. The station has to buy its fuel from Amoco, which results in a higher price, Ross said.
Other stations don't always have to buy from one place," Ross says. "They can buy a shipment of 'jobber' gas, which is cheapest in price but also in quality. It can have additives like water or alcohol." Ross touts Amoco gas because the consumer can be assured of a high quality source every time.
"I'm not just saying that because I work here, I proved it to myself," says Ross. Using Gold, Amoco's highest octane gas, Ross got 25 to 27 miles per gallon on a car rated at 21 highway mpg by the Environmental Protection Agency.
so that the detergents added to Amoco gas and the lack of harmful additives contribute to the mechanical health of cars. He attributes a lot of engine problems to bad gas.
"And I have a lead foot," Ross saves
the Dale-Wille Pontiac dealership, 2840 Iowa St., recommends that its customers use name brand gas and always follow the manufacturer's recommendation for octane levels.
Judging by business at Firestone Tire and Service Center, 2425 Iowa St., quality of gas is not a major problem in Lawrence.
"We don't see a whole lot of fuel line problems," says Larry Stephens, Firestone manager. He says that water can get into gas lines from condensation, but Amoco has additives that clean that water out.
However, Stephens says he didn't think there was a big difference in quality between stations.
"The industry is pretty well regulated." Stephens says.
Still he sees a benefit to buying more expensive gasolines such as Amoco's.
"It is good maintenance down the road" he says
Sean Stires, Salina senior, and his wife, Stacy, agree. The couple prefers stations with a carwash but say the quality such as Texaco and Amoco offered was their No.1 priority.
"We avoid convenience store gas whenever possible." Sean Shires says.
But the lowe-priced Total gas also has its steadfast followers.
Rich Harland, Kansas City junior, lives by a Total in Kansas City that he uses regularly, and he says his Chevy S10 pickup has run better for it.
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
"When I go other places, it knocks. There, it doesn'tknock."
People and places at the University of Kansas.
Cultural Calendar
EXHIBITIONS AND LECTURES
Exhibition—Fine Art Jewelry and Metal work , Jan 3-Feb. 7 at The Lawrence Arts Center 200 W. 9th.
PERFORMANCES
KU Opera presents "H.M. S. Pinafore," 7:30 p.m. tomorrow and Saturday and 2:30 p.m. Sunday at Swarthout Recital Hall. Tickets $6 public, $3 students and senior citizens.
AUDITIONS
University Theatre will hold call-back auditions for spring productions at 7 tonight and tomorrow at Murphy Hall.
The Renegade Theatre will hold open auditions for its 1905 season on Wednesday, Jan. 18 and Thursday, Jan. 19 from 7-10 p.m.
Fashion, pigeons and lawsuits keeping celebs in the news
The Associated Press
LOS ANGELES — Maybe Prince Charles should reconsider his wish to live inside Camilla Parker Bowles' trousers — she was No. 1 on Mr. Blackwell's 35th annual list of the worst dressed women.
faults were
Demi Moore,
Heather
Locklear,
Roseanne,
Ellen
DeGeneres,
Barbara
Cartland, Holly
Hunter, Juliette
Lewis, Fran
Drescher and
Madonna.
"She looked in the mirror and watched it crack," the self-proclaimed fashion critic remarked in the list released Tuesday.
Others castigated for fashion
Demi Moore
Best-dressed and "fabulous fashion independents" were: Sophia Loren, Sharon Stone, Princess Margaret, Barbara Walters, Madeline Stowe,帕莱拉 Hariman Ivana Trump, Princess Diana.
Barbra Streisand and Winona Ryder.
--role — playing
Elizabeth
Taylor in an
NBC mis-
series.
WINNIPEG, Manitoba — To succeed or not to succeed. That is the question for Keanu Reeves.
Can the star of "Speed" play a credible Hamlet when the play opens at the Manitoba Theatre Centre on Thursday?
Does it matter? The play, which runs until Feb. 4, is sold out for its entire run.
"The first thing I noticed about Keanu is how much work he'd already done in preparing for Hamlet," said Stephen Russell, who plays Claudius.
"It was apparent to me that this was not going to be a star trip, this was not going to be a romp in the park, that he is a very serious young man and he was not here to fool around."
Fellow actors say Reeves has been a closet Shakespearean all along.
--role — playing
Elizabeth
Taylor in an
NBC mis-
series.
PASADENA, Calif. — Sherilyn Fenn is overwhelmed by her latest
--role — playing
Elizabeth
Taylor in an
NBC mis-
series.
"It's one thing to play a character that's fictitious. It's another thing to play one who's alive and well and fighting it," said Fenn, who made her mark tying a cherry stem into a knot with her tongue on "Twin Peaks."
Elizabeth Taylor
The movie, which will cover 50 years of Taylor's life, is based on an unauthorized C. David Heymann biography to be published this spring. Taylor is trying to quash the project, but Fenn thinks the series will be respectful.
"I'm not somebody who wants to exploit another woman's story in any way," Fenn told a Television Critics Association meeting Tuesday.
--work, she threatened to sue.
MILWAUKEE — Put another notch on the belt of Robert
Redford's Sundance Kid.
Redford recently shot down a company called Sundance Foods Inc. with a trademark infringement suit. He said the name trampled on his own company, Sundance Catalog Co., which he founded in 1989.
The owner of Sundance Foods, Kim Wall, says she never thought about the outlaw connection. She's been selling gourmet spices and mixes since 1911, and she took the company name from Native American lore.
But she's agreed to change the name. Starting April 1, her company will be SunWild Foods.
"At first I was really angry about this," she said, "but now I am kind of OK about it."
--work, she threatened to sue.
The actress and animal rights activist called for a demonstration Thursday, when a pigeon shoot is planned in Bessieres, in the southwest near Toulouse. If that doesn't
TOULOUSE, France — If village officials go ahead with plans to shoot pigeons, Brigitte Bardot is ready to fire off a lawsuit.
---
In an open letter, Bardot criticized Bessieres Mayor Jean-Paul Seguela for "declaring war with a universal symbol of this fragile peace: the dove."
SCHUYLER, Va. — John Boy and Jim Bob are feuding with the townsfolk on Walton's Mountain.
She also offered several alternatives, including a specialized team that could chase birds away with an "inoffensive laser gun" and a ton of grain laced with contraceptives for a "bigeon sterilization campaign."
Earl Hammer, who created "The Waltons" TV series, is threatening to pull his support from the Walton's Mountain Museum — as well as his manuscripts and such memorabilia as an Emmy Award.
His younger brother, James Hammer, already has resigned as chairman of the community center board that runs the museum.
The Hammers say museum director William Luhrs runs the museum like a tyrant and they want him to resign. But most community center members gave a show of support to
Luhrs at a meeting Monday night.
rammer based the character John Boy on himself and Jim Bob on his brother. The museum opened in 1992 and drew 46,000 visitors last year.
---
PASADENA, Calif. — Glenn Close says people are paying too much attention to a kiss she shares with Judy Davis in an upcoming TV movie about a gay woman in the military.
Glenn Close
"It's basically not what the movie is about," Close said, speaking via satellite Tuesday to a Television Critics Association meeting. "The movie is a very, very personal story
... the kiss is just something that comes at the very end. I think the movie would be dishonest without it, but it's certainly not the issue."
"Serving in Silence," based on the book written by Margarethe Cammermeyer and Chris Fisher,