Something that bugs me is when everyone compares the cost of gas to things like Starbucks and bottled water... With the price of gas up over 80 cents in the past 12 weeks, can anyone name another product that can increase its cost over 30% in such a short time?
And if they did, would the public continue to be patrons of that business? If your grande mochalattefrappacrappa went from 3 bucks to 4 in a few weeks, wouldn't you just go back to hogging the pot at work? Or look for another coffee outlet that has more reasonable pricing? That can't be done with gas- when one goes up, everyone seems to follow along. And when was the last time you saw the price of a cup of coffee affect the cost of a gallon of milk? Or whether or not you could go on vacation?
And now that the companies admit charging more for gas during the summer travel months (and more for heating oil during the winter
), followed by their multi-billion Quarterly profits reports, would you stand for the same slap in the face by Starbucks, Pepsi or McDonalds?