If you bought gas differently at any time in the last week, you are to blame for the gas shortage…not Ike, not Bush, not lack of supply in Texas or the pipeline. Gas stations in Nashville sold FOUR TIMES more gas last weekend than a normal weekend. That is panic buying. People buying gas because they “didn’t know when there will be more” is panic buying. Topping off your tank for no reason when you have 3/4 tank is panic buying. TV news using as a teaser and showing as a lead story ONE station in Winchester that sold gas last week at $5.39 caused panic buying. Freaking out and sitting in line for TWO HOURS to buy gas IS PANIC BUYING.
Stop it people. Return to your normal habits and this is all over in two days. Really really. The sky is not falling, there is gas out there, just…
CHILL
live. laugh. love. 
I agree! We live in Houston where Ike hit. While out for dinner and shoe shopping tonight, we stopped at a local station and paid $3.39. No waiting, no lines, gas pumps waiting for someone to pull up. Granted, there were some signs that said “only regular,” but that’s what we buy anyway so that didn’t bother us! I had friends in South Carolina & family in Atlanta who were telling me tales of gas being $4.19 or $4.25. I never saw it near that much in my suburb (Katy) of Houston.
Amen!
My husband spent the afternoon filling up his veggie oil truck so that not only do we not have to panic buy gas, we don’t have to buy it at all!
Love that Mandy.
Seriously, Chill.
http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/09/19/nashville.gas/index.html
Thanks Phil.
I filled up Thursday, when gas seemed plentiful and “cheap” ($3.87).
It doesn’t seem so much like panic buying as prudent buying when you might go into labor at any moment, though!
Meredith gets a pass on the gas buying when you might go into labor. 🙂
My little burb still doesn’t have much gas available. It is a topic of conversation – which station has gas and how much you are permitted to buy after sitting in line to buy it (10 gallon cap in most stations here). I wandered 15 miles north to have lunch with my hubby during the week and bought gas for my empty tank (at a slightly inflated $4.09) without sitting in line or a ration on how much I could purchase. But my little burb continues to panic and sit in line and buy as much gas as they can. I don’t get it.
Oops that was me above.
Demand is still running at twice the normal average. Deep breaths everyone. The pipes are wide open, the barges are arriving, there is no supply shortage. It is now 100% demand causing any problems. Breathe in, breathe out, breathe in, breathe out…..or for Meredith, hee hee haa, hee hee haa, hee hee haa.
Agreed! What is going on in Nashville right now is uncaled for.
uncalled
Yep – they were cracking down left and right here with fines on the stations that REALLY took advantage of that.
True, the shortage is not because of a supply problem. But, the shortage is also not a demand problem. It’s a price problem. Shortages are caused when the price doesn’t increase enough to accommodate the current supply AND demand. Yeah, that’s right: the shortage you experienced was because the price was too LOW.
(Well, at least it’s too low in terms of keeping gas on hand at the station. I guess some people may not mind the trade off of less gas at current prices vs. more gas at higher prices. “Hey, I may not be able to find any gas, but at least they’re not gouging us!”)
I don’t think prices could have risen fast enough in response to a panic demand. Also, in today’s knee-jerk litigious society, I am sure gas stations would rather run out of gas than to deal with the state regulators in a so-called “price gouging” case of an “essential commodity”. For example, MAPCO Express (a secondary market retailer based in Nashville) chose to not accept deliveries rather than pay $5.30/gallon and be accused of “price gouging”.
Your point is well taken though James.
Well, it is still a daily thing here in a burb of Atlanta. We never know who is gonna have gas or at what price. It is ridiculous.
Malia
It was ridiculous! We waited until Monday afternoon to get some-when the gas tank was less than 1/4 of a tank. We were fine!
Has the gas “crisis” calmed down at all for you guys?
For the most part, yes. There are still stations without gas and those with gas don’t necessarily have all grades or full tanks. But, the panic lines and the intense media attention are gone.