Starbucks and water and gas! Oh my!

[FinancialAnalystKid]

Current gas price at my local station: $3.11 a gallon.

Are skies really blue somewhere over the rainbow? In the case of gas prices, I don't think so. I hope so. I can dare to dream.

I NEED gas so I pay the continued increase in gas price without complaints because there’s no other alternative for me at the moment. I NEED water but I can choose to pay a buck for 24 ounces of water or find a water fountain and drink it for free. I NEED coffee and it has to be Starbucks Coffee or I’ll just be pissed off all day.

I drive a minimum of 38 miles a day to and from work. My car gets a combined 22 mpg so it costs about $5.37 a day to drive to and from work. At five days a week that’s $26.85 a week. In a month’s time I pay approximately a minimum of $107.44 for gas. That’s an 11% increase in my gas expense from a year ago. But we're not in Kansas anymore.

The Katrina disaster is also expected to effect gas prices as well. So expect gas prices to rise in the near future.

I’m not going to complain that I paid $3.11 for a gallon of gas. I need it, I’ll pay it. I hear people complain about gas prices all the while holding a 24 ounce bottle of water that they paid a dollar for at a 7-11. Gas is a scarce resource. Water is everywhere. You can drink water for free yet people throw money at water companies by paying more than $5.00 a gallon for it without complaining.

I was at Vons the other morning and walked by the Starbucks counter and heard a lady complain about gas prices to another person in line. And she was buying a cup of coffee for $1.85! She can make Starbucks coffee at home with a $9.95 bag of whole bean coffee. That’s like paying approximately 40 cents for a each cup of coffee. And she was really REALLY bitching about gas prices. YO, DOROTHY! You're paying an extra 300% for a cup coffee in order to feed your addiction! Stop the complaining!

I’m not going to complain about gas prices. I’m just going to watch my mileage a little bit more while I enjoy my 40 cent cup of STARBUCKS COFFEE every day to the very last drop. And maybe, somewhere over the rainbow, skies are blue. And if I dare to dream of gas prices coming down, maybe my dreams will come true.

 

[Cbrine]

FAK,
Very poetic.

One problem with the rant......

Does your Starbucks coffee price go up and down by 5-20% every 4 hours or so?


Cal

PS-See tag line.

 

[Glaswegian]

Well, I just filled up yesterday and the price was 90p per litre. That works out at £3.41 per gallon or nearly $7 US. Ok so 70% of that price goes to Gordon Brown in tax but I'm of the opinion (and at the risk of starting an international incident here) that drivers in the US have been too used to paying almost nothing for petrol in the past. I am sorry that this will affect many people in rural areas (as it does in the north of Scotland) but until someone comes up with a compact fusion reactor, I believe that prices will continue to rise. You could argue that this is forcing manufacturers to make their vehicles more efficient and with smaller engines and it seems to be paying off in Europe, but perhaps not in the US.

BTW I prefer Cafe Nero.

 

[Norie]

FinancialAnalystKid

The reason that your gas/petrol prices are so high is because of the effect that Hurricane Katrina has taken on the rigs out in the Gulf of Mexico, they can't produce at the moment.

Which apparently supply 25% of the world's oil.

That castratrophe not only jacked up the oil price but it also killed a lot of people and made a lot more homeless.

 

[RichardS]

Hurricane Katrina, an absolute tragedy. All over the papers here in Australia. Our thoughts are with all the millions of people effected by this disaster, and the coming months of heartache as they try to rebuild their lives.

On the subject of fuel, we're paying about $1.20 a litre, which is about US$7.20 a gallon. It was at that level prior to Katrina, so is only going to go higher. Our oil prices are linked to world prices, despite the fact we produce most of our own. As in the UK, Mr Costello (Treasurer) reaps huge benefits from this. The vast distances some people have to travel in this country, and heavy reliance on road transport for freight, mean oil prices effect the cost of just about everything. But as FAK says, we need it, we'll pay for it. At least I've got a roof over my head, unlike so many in the Gulf states of USA.

Richard

Edit: Just filled up at $1.26. That's US$4.31/gallon. My currency conversion is no good.

 

[Norie]

Could we please get off the fact that we are paying more for our petrol/diesel each day and focus on the reasons why?

The reason why gas (or whatever you want to call it) prices have recently been hiked in the US is because of the hurricane.

This will affect prices throughout the world because the region hit by that 'natural' disaster was one of the largest oil producing areas in the world.

Where people died.

FinancialAnalystKid

You drive a minimum of 38 miles to/from work?

Get a bike.

 

[Smitty]

What happened to Nawlins and the Deep South is a true tragedy; I've given my Red Cross $, and my thoughts and prayers go out to all of those who have or will suffer losses. Fortunately, many had the resources to leave in time (except the dumass tourists, who aparrently lacked a resource called good judgement and stayed...) Unlike with the tsunami, they all had plenty of warning.

It's going to take a long time to rebuild from that one. And that's if the scumbag looters leave anything that the 'cane didn't FUBAR.

Which apparently supply 25% of the world's oil.

Sorry, it's about 25% of US production. Still a sizeable amount though.

You drive a minimum of 38 miles to/from work?

Get a bike.

My commute's 38 miles and it used to be awesome on a bike, especially because you can lane split in California...Until my wife made me sell it when our baby was born...

But you guys not from the US are right, we've enjoyed gas prices that have not risen to match inflation since the embargo of the 70's ended.

I lived in Australia in the late 80's and gas was $0.74/liter, when I was used to paying about $0.65/gallon in Texas. I was really thankful that I didn't own a car when I was down there, just borrowed a mate's ute or the company truck if I needed to go to town.

Are OPEC and producers taking "advantage" of the situation, sure. I.E. why is Diesel more expensive in the US when it's bottom of the totem pole in the cracking process, and gasoline is at the top? Mile-for-mile, the US industries that need diesel, use more of it than the average consumer uses gas. Go figger that equation.

Are water companies taking advantage of the situation, absolutely! I just read an article regarding San Diego municipal water, that it's some of the best in the US and comparable to bottled waters (whatever method involved), but San Diegans spend millions on it annually. Although a good % of that water consumption is driven by aliens (illegal or not), who don't believe that tap water is safe (so they go to the 7-11 and plunk in a buck to fill gallon milk jugs from the "filtered" water machine outside), not noticing the garden hose from the store going to the back of it... P.T. Barnum would love it! I'm on a well and my water tests show that it's beter than most bottled, so I'm sticking with it, but my wife drinks bottled...AAARGH!

The company I work for is, well "frugal" (if you're in CA, you can figure out where I work, and we live up to our name internally), but our Execs and Conference room get bottled water. I fill up my water bottles at the filtered tap in the Conference Room sink and keep 'em in my fridge. But you shouldn't drink water anyway...Fish **** in it.

As for Starbucks, the water guy brings that for them too, which for about $3 a bag, I get from my secretary and take home, so my coffee costs about $3 every 2 months...I laugh at my Boss when we go to Starbucks (him every day..me only if he's buying) and he drops $5+ for a "Vente Cafe Americana, add shot, yada, yada, yada". They get to me and it's easy: "Large coffe with a shot", which can really PI$$ those foks off when you don't use their terms, but I refuse!

Smitty

 

[Andrew Fergus]

FYI oil statistics for 2004 - who produced it, who consumed it, who imported it and who exported it. Once the oil is gone future wars will be over water (of the unpolluted variety) - where I live we have chlorine-free spring water on tap! No need to buy it here but plenty of people do ...

 

[litrelord]

FYI oil statistics for 2004 - who produced it, who consumed it, who imported it and who exported it.

Unfortunately these figures don't mean much without comparing them to the population figures from each country. It's fine to say that a country consumes the most oil but if they've twice as many people than the country in second place and the second place country uses more than 50% of their total then they're worse offenders.

Still, 20.5 million barrels of oil per day is pretty outstanding

Nick

 

[just_jon]

Yes, we here in the US have had an easy time of it, no doubt. Coming to an end, I think.

I can remember heading down to Ormond Beach in the late 50's/early 60's and running into gas wars in south Georgia: 10.9 cents/gallon.

Those were the days, eh boys?

Anyway, the price of gas is at the moment trivial. There are I'd guess near 5,000 dead and more dying in the Gulf now.

Those of you who can, send what you can [ as T.T. Terry used to say, "Great is the Power of Cash." ]