Merritt has the lowest gas prices in the province

GasBuddy analyst Dan McTeague says the Super Save station is paying about $1.19 per litre to replace that gasoline, so it’s impossible that it is turning a profit on gasoline.

“If you’re going to Super Save, what’s the catch? Because there’s something obviously in the store that they need (to sell) to make up the difference,” said McTeague. “Why? That gas station is replacing its fuel today for $1.19. So if they’re going to sell something for 15, 16 cents less per litre, and they move 20,000 litres on a day like today, it means that they’re going to be losing $5,000 by the end of the day.

“How are they making it up?”

“There’s no such thing as a free lunch. It may be wonderful and crazy that we have prices like that — we all want that — but there’s got to be a catch.”

The cheapest gas in Kamloops right now is at the Costco, although it’s more than 20 cents higher than Merritt’s lowest price.

McTeague says with taxes totalling nearly 40 cents per litre, it’s far more plausible that the Kamloops stations are making money.

“The numbers are pretty transparent — [the wholesale price is] 77.5 (cents per litre) tomorrow, and today was 80. So it is coming down on the wholesale side, but certainly not by 15, 16 cents,” said McTeague.

“I think it’s creating a bit of a head fake for people. I wouldn’t fall for this. It’s clear that this is a fire sale price by the single gas station, with another Petro Canada station nearby trying to match it.”

“If you’re selling gasoline 10 to 15 cents below wholesale, you have to make it up somehow in some other way,” continued McTeague. “Unless, of course, there’s a real big margin on beef jerky.”

by Ashley Legassic / James Peters

Merritt has the lowest gas prices in the province

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