December 23, 2008
Tuesday AM

I just moved to Ketchikan from Minnesota in September. It is my understanding, (and I may be off here) that there was a petition and even a city council meeting talked about how high the prices were. The outcome of which was a few choice people saying that the gas stations wouldn't do that and then they quoted exactly what the people who mark the prices told them.

They said that when a barge comes in they pay the current or "going" rate at that time to the barge. They then, mark their prices according to how much it costs off the barge. Meanwhile prices go down in the contiguous states but they've still got to pay for that gas so they leave the price up until another barge comes and they then base the new price off of how much the new gas cost and so on and so on.

Now, after that long winded display I only have two main questions left.

1. Why when gas goes up in the rest of the states does gas immediately go up here?
2. Why do they charge so much more than the barge in the first place?

If anyone has or knows where I can get a chart or list of prices in the past year or two from Ketchikan so that I could compare it to one for the costs they've had to pay the barges to bring it.

This way we can determine exactly who is gouging our eyes out with these prices and act accordingly.

Robbie King
Ketchikan, AK

Received December 17, 2008 - Published December 23, 2008

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