How much is enough?

[Big_D]

Saw Shell Up North at £1.569 today

[Bper]

18 minutes ago, Big_D said:

Saw Shell Up North at £1.569 today

Maybe I should look to import petrol here with those low prices.☺️

[Cyker]

That's always been the question! Why the variance is so big, even between forecourts under the same brand!

There are a few Shell stations around here and their prices vary wildly!

 

[Big_D]

We'll be filling up the Yaris tomorrow night, getting ready for our drive back south where the cheapest fuel I saw yesterday was £1.589

[Big_D]

Let's hope prices keep going down.

[Bper]

13 minutes ago, Cyker said:

That's always been the question! Why the variance is so big, even between forecourts under the same brand!

There are a few Shell stations around here and their prices vary wildly!

 

Do you think it could be the overhead on each station that dictates the price.⛽

[Bper]

10 minutes ago, Big_D said:

Let's hope prices keep going down.

"So say us all ".👍

[Big_D]

Or is each station individually franchised where the franchisee is able to apply their own prices??

[Bper]

13 minutes ago, Big_D said:

We'll be filling up the Yaris tomorrow night, getting ready for our drive back south where the cheapest fuel I saw yesterday was £1.589

Lots of talk about the prices will drop quicker now.😊

[Bper]

14 minutes ago, Big_D said:

Or is each station individually franchised where the franchisee is able to apply their own prices??

Yes you are right I forgot most of these stations are franchised hence different prices. However I thought franchises would have a fixed price policy in line with shells set price.

If they do not then every Shell garage could mark there own price up to what they want and would this not make Shell uncompetitive with others in the market and lower there profits.🤔

 

 

[FROSTYBALLS]

Locally (Birmingham) 3 petrol stations have E10 at £1.49.9 (two Esso & Sainsburys), 2 at £1.53.9 (Tesco), 2 at £1.54.7 (Gulf), 3 at £1.55.9 (Jet & two Tesco), and 2 at £1.56.9 (Tesco & Esso).

[Bper]

9 hours ago, FROSTYBALLS said:

Locally (Birmingham) 3 petrol stations have E10 at £1.49.9 (two Esso & Sainsburys), 2 at £1.53.9 (Tesco), 2 at £1.54.7 (Gulf), 3 at £1.55.9 (Jet & two Tesco), and 2 at £1.56.9 (Tesco & Esso).

Can anyone explain why there is such a big disparity with prices around the country. Was there ever such a big difference between various petrol stations.🍌🤬

[forkingabout]

Noticed lately that both my local Tesco filling stations never seem to have any E5 Momentum fuel available, pumps are always sold out but plenty of there cheaper E10 Unleaded.

Had to fill up with Esso Supreme E5 earlier this week & the time before had to fill up with Shell V Power E5.

[Roy124]

I have been highlighting the shortage of E5 for the last 2-3 weeks.  It might he that the media reports of better performance are filtering through. 

I mentioned I had E5 at Louth at just 7p more than E10 which made E5 potentially less expensive per mile.  At another Shell station the difference was 27p. 

Why do the prices vary?  The simple answer is the local filling stations charge what the market will bear and set their prices below the price leader.  A supermarket fixes all its prices locally, goods and fuel. 

We have a Sainsbury and Esso a couple hundred yards apart.  A penny difference sees long queues at the Sainsbury and frequently a congested exit.  Where time and convenience are important logic suggested Esso is better value. 

[Hornet3D]

14 minutes ago, Roy124 said:

I have been highlighting the shortage of E5 for the last 2-3 weeks.  It might he that the media reports of better performance are filtering through. 

I mentioned I had E5 at Louth at just 7p more than E10 which made E5 potentially less expensive per mile.  At another Shell station the difference was 27p. 

Why do the prices vary?  The simple answer is the local filling stations charge what the market will bear and set their prices below the price leader.  A supermarket fixes all its prices locally, goods and fuel. 

We have a Sainsbury and Esso a couple hundred yards apart.  A penny difference sees long queues at the Sainsbury and frequently a congested exit.  Where time and convenience are important logic suggested Esso is better value. 

Our local Sainsburys is still supplying E5 at the moment.

[Bper]

45 minutes ago, Roy124 said:

I have been highlighting the shortage of E5 for the last 2-3 weeks.  It might he that the media reports of better performance are filtering through. 

I mentioned I had E5 at Louth at just 7p more than E10 which made E5 potentially less expensive per mile.  At another Shell station the difference was 27p. 

Why do the prices vary?  The simple answer is the local filling stations charge what the market will bear and set their prices below the price leader.  A supermarket fixes all its prices locally, goods and fuel. 

We have a Sainsbury and Esso a couple hundred yards apart.  A penny difference sees long queues at the Sainsbury and frequently a congested exit.  Where time and convenience are important logic suggested Esso is better value. 

Hi Roy,

After reading about franchise petrol stations my understanding is that they are sold petrol at a fraction of pence price, not 2p or more but zero percentages. However an example of the cost to start a petrol station.The franchise fee for example a BP Connect store in the UK is approximately £20,000. On top of that, you will need to have around £800,000 in liquid investment for running costs until you become profitable. A total investment of around £2,000,000 is expected, including the high cost of the land and your shop outfit. BP does not offer financial services. It obviously isn't cheap to set up by any means so I assume those that do must have significant resources behind them. It will no doubt take some time to recoup costs. 

I guess when you look at this it does demand high returns. This may not just be the petrol station overcharging but a must on there part in order to pay overhead. I can therefore only point the high costs of fuel at the money markets and oil producers.

if anyone has an opinion or better knowledge then what I have read I would be interested to learn from them. 

[Cyker]

4 hours ago, Bper said:

Can anyone explain why there is such a big disparity with prices around the country. Was there ever such a big difference between various petrol stations.🍌🤬

To be honest it's always been this way for as long as I can remember (The big disparity between prices).

I don't know if the base fuel cost changes between different areas but I assume there is a transport cost that varies, then it's down to th individual stations to set the price.

I suspect the Abridge Shell is selling at almost no margin to attract people in, as it's also a Budgens and a used car garage and maybe they figure the more throughput they get the more likely someone is to buy something in-store, which will no doubt have better margins than the fuel.

On an unrelated note they have a deal on tubs of Celebrations and Heros but no Tictacs.

[Bper]

51 minutes ago, Cyker said:

To be honest it's always been this way for as long as I can remember (The big disparity between prices).

I don't know if the base fuel cost changes between different areas but I assume there is a transport cost that varies, then it's down to th individual stations to set the price.

I suspect the Abridge Shell is selling at almost no margin to attract people in, as it's also a Budgens and a used car garage and maybe they figure the more throughput they get the more likely someone is to buy something in-store, which will no doubt have better margins than the fuel.

On an unrelated note they have a deal on tubs of Celebrations and Heros but no Tictacs.

I think a lot of the problem is growing up in an era when prices changed very little in comparison to today. The amount of increase on all items we buy has risen so quickly and always blamed on some other reason then total mismanagement of economies. 

I don't believe those born in the 50s and 60s have ever experienced such high rises in the cost of living.

It seems evident that whoever we vote in to govern the country either conservative or labour, they all manage to ruin the economy one way or another. I do believe we need a totally different approach to how we vote these people in . Proportional representation must be allowed to happen and we really need politicians that do what we vote them in to do and not serve themselves.😠

 

 

[Hornet3D]

4 minutes ago, Bper said:

I think a lot of the problem is growing up in an era when prices changed very little in comparison to today. The amount of increase on all items we buy has risen so quickly and always blamed on some other reason then total mismanagement of economies. 

I don't believe those born in the 50s and 60s have ever experienced such high rises in the cost of living.

It seems evident that whoever we vote in to govern the country either conservative or labour, they all manage to ruin the economy one way or another. I do believe we need a totally different approach to how we vote these people in . Proportional representation must be allowed to happen and we really need politicians that do what we vote them in to do and not serve themselves.😠

 

 

One of the failings of the first past the post system is that it tends to generate large swings from one direction to the other as the balance of power changes.   One of the traits common to all parties is that, in their endeavor to remain in power, they tend to only deal with the populist policies and the outlook is generally short term as can be seen in the lack of long-term planning for the supply of water, energy and social care and many other areas that effect daily life.

[Puglet]

I noticed this week our nearest Esso just gone to milestone of £1.59.9 they are most expensive usually so things going in right direction here, but I still putting Shell V Power (E5) in our 107, happy to pay premium for decent fuel cos our 107 saves money/costs in other areas as well as mpg. 

 

[Bper]

18 minutes ago, Hornet3D said:

One of the failings of the first past the post system is that it tends to generate large swings from one direction to the other as the balance of power changes.   One of the traits common to all parties is that, in their endeavor to remain in power, they tend to only deal with the populist policies and the outlook is generally short term as can be seen in the lack of long-term planning for the supply of water, energy and social care and many other areas that effect daily life.

Yes I agree but isn't it ironic that the politicians take great pleasure in telling us what to do and how to live yet we vote for them to do our bidding and they just ignore us.

I listen to talk show hosts interviewing independent politicians, certain political commentators and sensible business people who understand the needs of the people.

We ask 'why are these people not in government?', they understand what's wrong with the economy and have credible plans to put things right. If we don't all wake up to this political madness I fear we are going to have serious  problems for many years to come. 

 

[Roy124]

Bper, re franchise, the Red House on the A43 North of Northampton has been Shell for as long as I remember except it might have been Murco or similar for a short time. 

They were notable for being both cheapest Shell and cheapest petrol.  Around 2019/20 they were the dearest by a country mile. 

From last year they were again the cheapest though their E5 was up in the 180s.  

That would possibly reflect a change of franchisee. 

[Bper]

22 minutes ago, Roy124 said:

Bper, re franchise, the Red House on the A43 North of Northampton has been Shell for as long as I remember except it might have been Murco or similar for a short time. 

They were notable for being both cheapest Shell and cheapest petrol.  Around 2019/20 they were the dearest by a country mile. 

From last year they were again the cheapest though their E5 was up in the 180s.  

That would possibly reflect a change of franchisee. 

Yes I don't understand the logic in it, something must of changed with the business but unless you are able to see the profit and loss accounts I doubt you will ever know.

From what I have read and posted iearlier today it is not a cheap enterprise to own one of these petrol stations. 

If anyone knows any different I would love to hear from them.☺️ 

[Cyker]

1 hour ago, Bper said:

Yes I agree but isn't it ironic that the politicians take great pleasure in telling us what to do and how to live yet we vote for them to do our bidding and they just ignore us.

I listen to talk show hosts interviewing independent politicians, certain political commentators and sensible business people who understand the needs of the people.

We ask 'why are these people not in government?', they understand what's wrong with the economy and have credible plans to put things right. If we don't all wake up to this political madness I fear we are going to have serious  problems for many years to come. 

 

Personally I think the way democracy works is broken.

We're literally voting in people that, on the whole, have no proven ability to run a sweet shop, nevermind a country, and it's just based purely around popularity and how good they are at advertising and marketing. It turns out people that can blag the best aren't necessarily the best for an honest leader.

I had this idea some years ago, where anyone who wants to be in power should instead have to go through a standard interview process, including references, qualification checks, background checks etc. (Those parts would be done by civil servants), and the people we vote for would instead be the people who go on the face-to-face interview panel.

Either that or they have to play Sim City on Hard Difficulty and the person with the least riots in their city wins?

 

[dannyboy413]

3 hours ago, Bper said:

we really need politicians that do what we vote them in to do and not serve themselves.😠

 

 

I do like a good comedian! 😁