After some huge gasoline prices this past year, with many ups and downs, gas here in Ohio has settled in at around $1.15 a gallon. Personally I never understood why they went up so high, and why they are now dropping... And now it seems like no one is even mentioning it. I never understand these economic trends!

-- Melissa (cmnorris@1st.net), November 25, 2001

Answers

They are settling in around here (Central Oklahoma) at just under $1/gal. As a matter of fact, with your membership card, Sam's Wholesale had it for $0.87 a gallon last week -- happy dance!!

-- Christine in OK (cljford@aol.com), November 25, 2001.

Prices were up due to supply and demand. We were using LOTS of it, and not hesitating to fly (which uses LOTS of petroleum products.)

Now, people are sticking close to home, using less gasoline, buying fewer products (which means less shipments of goods, less diesel used), and flying less.

More supply, lower price.

Bad side effect... LOTs of folks out of work.

-- Rose (open_rose@hotmail.com), November 25, 2001.

It's at about $1.04 here in NW Arkansas. We were in Texarkana over the weekend and it was .97cents!! Everyone we knew who had gone down there was filling their tanks up.

-- Ivy in NW AR (balch84@cox-internet.com), November 26, 2001.

I think they go really high so people don't complain when they lower it to a higher but lower level. 1.00 then 1.80 then 1.30. Then you hear about the cheap 1.30 gas. Once you get used to 1.30 they wait a while then do it again.

-- Tom (Calfarm@msn.com), November 26, 2001.

I guess we are still on the expensive end. There are two gas stations in our town one is $1.26 and the other is $1.23. If you travel about 20 miles towards Portland Maine it is around $1.10. Out here in the willywacks they tend to take advantage of people. It really is a shame that so many people are now out of work though. Me included. Oh well.

-- Janice Spaulding (kenjan@nh.adelphia.net), November 26, 2001.

When we went to New York last week, we saw prices as low as 1.23/gal. Around here it is 56 Canadian cents/liter. I did the figuring, with the current exchange rate ($1 CAN=60 cents US). The New York price was cheaper by about 14 Canadian cents.

-- Cathy N. (keeper8@attcanada.ca), November 26, 2001.

Around here it is currently selling for $.95 for unleaded. Last week we traveled north and on the way to Atlanta we saw it for $.87. They may be even cheaper now. I just hate that we stockpiled it when it was at $1.30 because they were saying it was going higher. Oh,well, you never know!

-- Deena in GA (dsmj55@aol.com), November 26, 2001.