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gas prices... ugh everywhere...
Back from Iraq for a week, David Parente was pumping gas Tuesday afternoon at a Moore convenience store.
When asked if he was surprised at the high cost of gas, Parente said matter-of-factly, "I thought that was one of the reasons we were fighting the war."
Parente, from Rhode Island where gas is routinely over $2 a gallon, is visiting his parents in Moore. He will return to Iraq in November as a machine gunner with the Marines.
Parente was lucky Tuesday. He found gas selling for $1.949.
Elsewhere in Spartanburg County, prices were higher. Pine Street Exxon topped out the Spartanburg County stations with $2.069. Last Thursday night the Exxon at Reidville and Blackstock roads began selling gas at $2.019.
Gas prices are showing no mercy on consumers.
Jagdish Patel, a convenience store operator, said customers come in asking, "Why are you changing the prices. I tell them it's not my gas. I don't set the prices."
Patel has seen the impact go beyond customers spending more for gas. For Patel, it also means they are spending less for convenience products like beverages, snacks and cigarettes.
Suppliers are beginning to limit their visits to convenience stores by cutting them in half, or in Patel's case, once a month.
"I must buy my coffee and other supplies a month in advance and stock them," he said.
If Patel runs out or wants more supplies before the next scheduled delivery, it will cost him at least $25 in gas surcharges.
And the biggest factor concerning Patel is there are now more motorists willing to chance driving off with a full tank of gas without paying.
"When there's one person, you have a choice of watching the cash register or the pumps. If you miss the pumps a car can easily pull away with $30 to $60 of gas. A lot of times that a night's profit," Patel said.
Patel said some customers make an art of having a couple of people distract him while the driver will fill up and quickly leave when he's not looking.
"They leave with the hose still on the ground pumping gas," Patel said.
Callie Smith is a regular customer of Patel's.
He comes in early in the morning and buys coffee and snacks and chats with his friend.
"But I won't buy gas here. I tell him it's too expensive," Smith said.
Smith, a quality control inspector for Beverage-Air, said his expenses for gas is approximately $75 to $80 per week.
"My wife works and each day she will take one of my children to Pine Street Elementary and the other to Dorman. I have an elderly mother living on the other side of town we visit frequently," Smith said.
"That's a lot of city traveling. There's no way I'm going to pay $2 a gallon."
It appears Smith may not have a choice in less than a week -- not the way gas prices are climbing.
Tyler Starnes, a Dorman sophomore, said the price of gas also impacts on his decision-making when giving friends rides.
"If someone asks for a ride and it takes you out of the way, that's extra gas I'm using," Starnes said. "If I run out of my seven days of gas, I am driven to school the next week."
The high gas prices are making young adults rethink their budget process.
Heather Bright, who works at United Cheerleading at the Westside Club, was putting a small amount of gas to get her home and to work the next day.
"I'm only putting in $5 of gas now because I want to eat," Bright said. "The gas prices are ridiculous."
Price said she budgets her electricity, gas and groceries and follows the budget faithfully.
"I can keep within my budget at the grocery store," she said. "But my gas bill is now more than my electricity."
Bright will take kids home after cheerleading when parents come to get them.
"Sometimes I go as far as Duncan. I have to be concerned because I'm using my gas. You find out you're not as free with gas when it's yours."
Bright also said her disposable income has taken a hit.
"I go to fewer movies and fewer places. I don't want to spend money on anything but gas when I come to a convenience store," she said. "There's no extra money for snacks."
And Bright, who used to eat out two or three times a week, has found breaking off a relationship will definitely hit the pocketbook hard.
"I was talking with some of my girlfriends who have broken off relationships and we're saying, 'Let's call so-and-so back and have him take us out to eat!' "
Jim Fair can be reached at 562-7267 or jim.fair@shj.com
well now you can read it i just fixed it.. posted it up again..