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View Full Version : A Shortage at the Pump: Not of Gas, but of 4s


xcel
07-15-2008, 09:08 PM
Hi All:

___Not worthy of news but another odd ball thing related to higher fuel prices!

“I don’t have enough 5s,” said Serdal Ozumer, 51, a clerk. “I got to talk to the manager.” (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/15/nyregion/15four.html?_r=1&ref=automobiles&oref=slogin)

http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/501/A_shortage_at_the_pump_-_4_s.jpgKen Belson – NY Times – July 15, 2008

Muhammed Matloob, who manages a gas station at Coney Island Avenue and Lewis Place in Brooklyn, is out of 4s for his regular pumps and 5s for his diesel.

If one is the loneliest number, then four is the hottest — at least when it comes to gasoline.

With regular gas in New York City at a near-record $4.40 a gallon, station managers are rummaging through their storage closets in search of extra 4s to display on their pumps. Many are coming up short.

That’s why Vishal Nair, who runs the Lukoil station at Eighth Avenue and 13th Street in Greenwich Village, took another plastic number last week, turned it over and scribbled “4” on it with a black magic marker. The result was an obviously homemade “$4.47,” but it would have to do until he received the extra 4s he ordered months ago.

“Typically, we have a lot of 9s and 1s, and we had a shortage of 3s before we got a lot of 3s in,” Mr. Nair said.

The missing digits are an unanticipated barometer of how frequently prices are changing. The average price of regular gasoline in New York City has risen by 35 percent this year, forcing station managers to change their price displays almost every time they get a delivery, which can be daily at some stations… http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/15/nyregion/15four.html?_r=1&ref=automobiles&oref=slogin

ATL
07-15-2008, 09:15 PM
that is one of the little known effects of this whole dilemma...its kinda like comic relief in the middle of a stressful movie

IDriveAHondaCivic
07-17-2008, 10:08 AM
I read an article about one place that let the gas station owners sell gas in half-gallons until they received more 4's. So they were selling at 2.05 a half-gallon.



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