Gas Crunch May Push Mom-and-Pop Stores Out Of Business

Thousands of angry drivers are complaining to the state attorney general’s office about possible gas price gouging, but one station being complained about is actually selling gas for less than it paid for it. And the current high prices could drive the mom-and-pop station out of business.

An investigator with the attorney general’s office visited Gator’s Gas in West Columbia Thursday morning because the station is selling regular unleaded at $4.79 a gallon. A Hess station down the street has it for $3.95. Owner Edwin Alewine says, “He looked at our invoice and he said that, you know, everything looked up to par there with us. We didn’t have nothing to worry about, that we was not price gouging. We’re actually losing about 42 cent a gallon.“ 

The invoice shows that Alewine paid nearly $5.20 a gallon to his supplier last week for the gas he’s now selling at $4.79. The price has caused him to go from selling about 1,800 gallons of gas a day to about 200 on Wednesday. “If it gets to the point, we may have to just close the doors and sell the property, you know, and take the loss and move on,” Alewine says.

Would-be customers have come in to complain about the high price and accuse Alewine of price gouging. He shows them the invoice that he has taped to the wall behind the cash register.

But word about his plight is also getting out. David Keith came in to buy gas Thursday, despite the higher price. “I felt sorry for the gentleman, so I decided I’d come get a little bit of his gas,“ Keith said. “It’s making it hard on everybody; us working and him, too, so this kind of evens it out.“ 

According to AAA, the current average price of gas in South Carolina is just under $4.02 a gallon. It was $4.075 on Wednesday, down from a high of $4.12 on Monday.