Consumers see welcome change at pump

By Staff
Jason Cannon FCT Editor
For Franklin County commuters there's been a healthy mix of good and bad news at the pump. The bad news: The cost of gas is still well above $2 per gallon. The good news: It's on the way down and already cheaper in the Russellville area than in many other places around the state.
"There is a strange phenomenon going on where we have a wide range of prices all over the state," AAA spokesman, Clay Ingram said.
"I've heard reports that some places have seen prices around $2.20 and some areas are still seeing prices at $2.50."
The nationwide average price of self-service regular gasoline is continuing to fall and is 57 cents lower than it was on Aug. 7 – the day prices reached their highest point this year of $3.03 per gallon.
According to fuelgaugereport.com, a website hosted by AAA that tracks the price of gas around the country, the statewide average cost per gallon of unleaded gas was $2.35.
The average price per gallon of unleaded gallon of gas in the Russellville area is about 15-cents lower.
Ingram said you could, in part, thank thrifty consumers for that.
"People seem to be looking for the cheapest price they can find in those areas," Ingram said.
"When there is about two or three cents difference in the price, folks will normally just buy the gas from anyone, but when there is a much larger difference like 10 to 15 cents, then it will make a difference."
In the areas that do not have as low of prices, Ingram thinks cheaper prices will get to them eventually.
"Some places just have not seen the effects of the lower supplier prices," he said. "I think everyone will see the lower prices statewide eventually."
Ingram listed a decrease in summer travel and the settling of political unrest in the Mid-East as other reasons for the decline in digits at the pump.