When it comes to gas prices, what goes down must come up - October 14, 2000 - 9:21 AM By MADELAINE VITALE Staff Writer, (609) 272-7218

EGG HARBOR TOWNSHIP  Gasoline prices at the Wawa Superstore and Coastal gasoline stations, at the corners of Tilton and Delilah roads, seemed too good to be true last Monday. They were. At $1.289 a gallon last Monday for regular gas, people were lined up at the pumps and filling up . Representatives from the state Division of Taxation Motor Fuels Unit, went down to both stations and told representatives to bring their prices back up to above cost.

Our representatives did visit the stations (Coastal and Wawa) last week and they spoke to them, said Francis Rapa, a spokesman for the state Department of Treasury, which oversees businesses. They (Wawa and Coastal officials) were very cooperative. We informed them of the laws and everyone agreed to comply. Prices were up to $1.399 a gallon for regular gas at both stations, the lowest allowed by state law on Friday. Retailers cant sell gasoline for less than they pay for it, and they cant lower their prices more than once in 24 hours, according to the state unfair trade practices act. When Wawa and Coastal gas stations dropped their gas prices to $1.289 a gallon for regular unleaded gas last Monday, they were allegedly selling it at below cost. Since Wawa Superstore opened last year, with a 16-pump gas station across the street from Coastal at the busy circle that feeds to the Atlantic City Airport, the two stations have been engaging in price wars.

Bill Dressler, the executive director of the New Jersey Gasoline Retailers Association, which has 3,000 members, said the types of prices Wawa and Coastal stations were selling their gas at last week were unfair and undercutting the competition. They are killing my guys, because when a guy is, say, making 6 cents on the gallon, selling gas at $1.51, how can he compete with a guy selling it for $1.389, asked Dressler. Unfortunately, people are going for prices, Dressler said. These people are buying at the lowest price possible. These are the Wawas of the world.

And people are buying at the Wawa stations. On Friday at 1 p.m. it looked more like an assembly line than a gas station. Coastal was just as busy. Jay Mellick, a salesman from Ocean City, pulled up to the Wawa station in his Ford Taurus, jumped out of his car with his cellular telephone in hand and said, Prices arent bad here. Last week they were better. I drive a few hundred miles a day. Over time, I really save a lot of money by getting my gas here.

Norman Turiano, a Wawa spokesman denied that the station was selling below cost last week. The state did contact us and looked at our records. I havent received anything from them, but I am positive that we werent selling below cost. Turiano said that Wawa buys its gas from various refineries along the East Coast. Repeated calls to a Coastal representative went unanswered.

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-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), October 16, 2000