Freedom Fuel Network Comes To The Detroit Area

0:00So the city of Detroit and the state of Michigan got their first freedom fuel network. This new discount gas chain. It opened at the corner of Harper and Cadu and Donald Trump has been talking about this gas station. It's 50 cents a gallon cheaper from those across the street. I saw it this weekend. Was it busy? I drove by it. It was just, no, it was the same as the other ones. And the other ones on that corner, there are like four gas stations at that corner. People were still going to the other one. Interesting. Oh, so they're selling gas at least this past week, 347 a gallon. It was an introductory price. And the price did jump 10 cents a gallon. So it's now 357 a gallon, but that's a little cheaper than a lot of other gas stations. How are they getting away with this? Why aren't other gas stations lowering their prices? And then what could that mean for these other gas stations in the area? Let's talk about it with Patrick to handle the analyst at gasbuddy.com.

1:00Patrick, good to have you back. We have Patrick. Patrick, you there. I am here. All right. Very good. How how how is freedom fuel offering these kind of prices when others aren't? I must have missed everything. You just said. So yeah, sure. No problem. So the this freedom fuel network chain of gas stations. We just got one in Detroit at Harper and Cadu and they're selling gas for 357 a gallon. How are they getting away with that kind of price? I couldn't really tell you. I don't know if they are selling below cost, but sometimes it's hard to know where they're sourcing the fuel, although of course there's been a lot of this information about the freedom fuel network and the price. So it's it's not always possible to know. I mean, a market low price, I would always look at and scratch my head as well.

2:01Sometimes the numbers just don't add up, especially when you talk about fees, transportation, costs. There's a lot that goes into it. Could could this be like that just traditional loss leader strategy, you know, you cheap gas gets customers in who then purchase those higher profit items inside the store? Yeah, I mean, it certainly could be gas stations all have different strategies. You know, some of the big wholesale clubs also use gasoline to get people on premise and into the stores. So there's a lot of different strategies when it comes to how to sell fuel. But you know, we've seen that sometimes just very aggressive prices do a lot of publicity. Certainly we're talking about them right now. So in some cases, stations are willing to do that, especially when stations open up. New stations tend to make a splash by having very low prices. And that gets them a lot of media tendering. Yeah, it sure does. What was the average for the Labor Day weekend? What do people pay? Well, across the country, we averaged about 490 gallon yesterday.

3:02Was by far the most expensive Labor Day Michigan 399 yesterday. That's up 87 cents from Labor Day last year. And for diesel, which drives the US economy and much more worrisome that Labor Day now has set a new all time record for the highest price of diesel, which is at 587 a gallon and climbing this morning. Gasoline prices may see a little bit of relief, although with new attacks over the weekend, the wholesale price of gasoline is up. This is the time of year we normally see the opposite. We see prices falling, summer driving season now behind us. Demand for gasoline tends to fall. And we're just about a week away from switching back to cheaper winter gasoline. That usually paves the way for lower prices in the fall. But with new escalations and constant back and forth, not only between the US and Iran, but probably more impactful in the last few weeks, at least for the price of diesel, has been these continued attacks by Ukraine on Russia's oil refineries. They've been very effective.

4:03Unfortunately, at knocking offline, a significant amount of refining capacity. And that's why diesel prices are so high right now. Patrick, you know, some customers may wonder like whether this cheaper gasoline means is lower quality gasoline? Is there any reason to be concerned? I wouldn't say so. Every gallon of gasoline produced at every refinery is generally run through a lab. Every batch is tested. And it all has to meet federal requirements. So some gasoline may have more additives, but in the end, even the federal standard for gasoline requires a minimum amount of detergents. Patrick, DeHon, I was great information. We appreciate you so much. Thank you. We'll talk soon. Thanks for having me. Yeah, you got it. That's Patrick DeHon at gasbuddy.com. I wanted to know if you guys saw this viral obituary from Michael Dismoney. Did anyone see? I read and I read it and I said, wow. Yeah. It the family decided because he was funny that they were going to be funny in the obituary.

5:08And it's just, it's a good read, honestly. And it appeared in the centrally chronicle, which is in Washington state. It starts with Michael Dismoney, regrettably informed you that he is no longer alive. That was not the plan. He expected to be alive somewhat longer in order to do many more things. Unfortunately, there was some measure of disagreement between his mind and his body and the arguments made by his body were in the end more persuasive. So it starts like that. And it's just like a beautiful, it's just, it just shows what this guy was. He was funny. He loved his family. He talked, they talk about his love for his wife that they were high school sweethearts, then army sweethearts and young parents, sweethearts, and then adult sweethearts and then sweethearts with teenagers, middle age sweethearts, and then grandparents, sweethearts. They never stopped being sweethearts and forever sweethearts. They remain. They talk about his daughters. And then at the very end, it says, Michael is again very sad to bring you this news. It wasn't much fun to receive.

6:08In lieu of flowers, he asked that you give your love freely, especially to those you hold most dear, because you never know when you might have to leave in a hurry. I mean, you know, when you have a sad occasion, like someone passing away and to have an obituary that just really just, you know, describes that person and leaves you with a, with a good feeling and a celebration because it's really, you know, supposed to be a celebration that, you know, a person is going to the other side and, and, you know, after reading that, it just, I just, you still, you have a good feeling. I'm feeling after that. I laughed and I just felt I knew him, even though I didn't. And I just, I just thought it was a great way to go. I got a little emotional reading because I was thinking like, I feel like that's how everybody would like to be remembered. Like that's how you would love your obituary to be read. Yes. And oftentimes it can be really difficult to get over that grief, right? To write something like that. But I just thought I felt like this, this family put a lot out, a lot on the line.

7:12Like they put everything on their sleeve to, uh, to show what type of person he was. Yeah. I thought it was spectacular. I thought it was great to, and the comments like it's going viral because it's unique and it's heartfelt and it's humanity and all that. And people are saying, well, that's the best one I've ever read. Other people are saying that, you know, what an amazing soul. Thank you for sharing his humanity with us. And I just, you know, God bless them. Yeah. Absolutely. Very, very cool way for him to be remembered. All right. Coming up on the other side, Michael Wushar, junior joins the show. He's on his way to Dallas to speak at the midterm Republican convention. We'll talk to him about that coming up. It's your morning in Michigan. It's back to school, but temperatures still get up there. So don't let high temperatures break your budget. Count on consumers energy to help you make the most of this season and your budget with tips and ways to save, making small changes like shifting some energy used to the morning or evening, raising your thermostat a couple of degrees, doing laundry at night, or in weekends can help lower your bill while keeping your home comfortable.

8:12Discover more ways to beat the heat at consumers energy dot com.