Petrol prices

Murphybear

I don’t know if this an appropriate place but I would like to thank our local Morrison’s for selling petrol this morning for less than £1.50 litre.  Unsurprisingly it was very busy.  

RogerBareford

Murphybear said:

I don’t know if this an appropriate place but I would like to thank our local Morrison’s for selling petrol this morning for less than £1.50 litre.  Unsurprisingly it was very busy.  

Which Morrisons is that?

SiliconChip

I noticed yesterday that Morrison's had the cheapest price here (south Birmingham) at 152.9, Sainsbury's are usually cheaper but I checked and they were 5p more, sadly the forecourt was closed so nobody could buy it anyway! It's certainly possible that the price has dropped again today given the fall in spot prices.

Thrugelmir

SiliconChip said:

I noticed yesterday that Morrison's had the cheapest price here (south Birmingham) at 152.9, Sainsbury's are usually cheaper but I checked and they were 5p more, sadly the forecourt was closed so nobody could buy it anyway! It's certainly possible that the price has dropped again today given the fall in spot prices.

Forecourt prices could lag spot oil prices by anything up to a week. Takes time to filter through the system, i.e. crude oil to be refined and distributed. 

Westin

As I sat waiting to fill up on the forecourt the other day I pondered why it is that the petrol retail business is allowed to advertise pricing in a fraction of a penny. For as long as I can remember petrol has been sold per litre as £xxx.9. Why price at say 162.9p per litre and not 163p per litre?

The half penny was taken out of circulation in 1984 which should have been the last of the fractional pricing on any goods.

Anyone know why this is permitted and is not addressed?

jon81uk

Westin said:

As I sat waiting to fill up on the forecourt the other day I pondered why it is that the petrol retail business is allowed to advertise pricing in a fraction of a penny. For as long as I can remember petrol has been sold per litre as £xxx.9. Why price at say 162.9p per litre and not 163p per litre?

The half penny was taken out of circulation in 1984 which should have been the last of the fractional pricing on any goods.

Anyone know why this is permitted and is not addressed?

Surely there is nothing stopping other goods that are priced per litre/metre doing fractional prices. So fabric could be 7.5p per metre, so if you only pay 1m it is rounded to 8p.

Realistically nothing (including petrol really) is that cheap that it is worth doing so. Its just an oddity of fuel now.

Penguin_

Thrugelmir said:

SiliconChip said:

I noticed yesterday that Morrison's had the cheapest price here (south Birmingham) at 152.9, Sainsbury's are usually cheaper but I checked and they were 5p more, sadly the forecourt was closed so nobody could buy it anyway! It's certainly possible that the price has dropped again today given the fall in spot prices.

Forecourt prices could lag spot oil prices by anything up to a week. Takes time to filter through the system, i.e. crude oil to be refined and distributed. 

Most supermarkets buy their fuel in bulk 3 weeks before it arrives at their forecourt, hence why they have been much cheaper in the last 2 weeks or so compared to the independent forecourts who buy fuel as & when needed.

RogerBareford

Westin said:

As I sat waiting to fill up on the forecourt the other day I pondered why it is that the petrol retail business is allowed to advertise pricing in a fraction of a penny. For as long as I can remember petrol has been sold per litre as £xxx.9. Why price at say 162.9p per litre and not 163p per litre?

The half penny was taken out of circulation in 1984 which should have been the last of the fractional pricing on any goods.

Anyone know why this is permitted and is not addressed?

It's all just marketing and ASDA do it to XXX.7p to stand out from all the other XXX.9p prices.

But why should it not be permitted and why does it need to be addressed?

You do realise if they advertised prices as 163p instead of 162.9p as per your example then most people will pay more as they usually put in multiple litres of fuel at a time. So it's not like the current system is costing anyone more.

jimbo6977

Superman 3 refers.

Murphybear

RogerBareford said:

Murphybear said:

I don’t know if this an appropriate place but I would like to thank our local Morrison’s for selling petrol this morning for less than £1.50 litre.  Unsurprisingly it was very busy.  

Which Morrisons is that?

Yeovil in Somerset 

molerat

Started heading in the right direction at last.  My local Esso is down to 155.9 from 161.9 this morning from 163.9 on Friday,