Prices have drivers pumped

Cost of regular gas below $2 a gallon in Flathead

By NANCY KIMBALL/Daily Inter Lake

It's getting a whole lot easier to fill up the tank these days.

That is, unless you drive a diesel rig. At prices nearly $1 higher, the pain remains for diesel drivers.

But regular gasoline prices were bringing smiles to the Flathead on Friday afternoon. By then, pump prices were $1.99 a gallon across the board, with possibly a straggler or two still displaying the morning's $2.09 posted price.

Costco seemed to claim the rock-bottom price at $1.93. Granted, its pumps are only for Costco members. Other fuel outlets such as Smith's and Albertson's have their own card discounts and volume discounts for shoppers who spend a minimum amount on groceries.

"They never expected it to be this low," David Brotnov said of customer reaction as he rang up purchases Friday morning in his Junction Gas and Groceries in Columbia Heights. A day earlier, his price on regular gas had dropped to $1.99.

"I had no idea" what to expect, Brotnov said. "I've been in the business too long" to make predictions.

In fact, he's done it all his life - and he's 70 years old. He's seen gas flow for 25 cents a gallon when he worked for an oil company in the early 1960s. And he's seen premium pushing $5 a gallon in recent months.

This fall, his price drops have averaged from 8 to 10 cents a week.

"It's caused by low demand on a national level," Brotnov said. "Locally, we determine it by our competition and what we can afford."

Montana's average price for regular unleaded Friday morning, as reported on AAA's Daily Fuel Gauge Report, was $2.175. That was 2 cents lower than Thursday's price and an entire dollar lower than a month ago. This time last year it was $3.187.

The national average beat Montana's average Friday by 2 cents, a trend it generally followed for a day, month and year ago.

The state's highest recorded average price for regular, AAA reported, was $4.207 on July 19 this year. For diesel, it was $4.671 three days later.

On a state-by-state comparison of Friday's prices, Ohio came in cheapest at $1.920 for regular gasoline. Alaska was far and away the most expensive at $3.221.

In the Flathead, prices have been dropping like the mercury in January.

Howard Brearey, general manager for the White Oak C-Mart on U.S. 93 south of Kalispell, said his $1.99 price Friday was 20 or 30 cents lower than a week earlier.

"It's come down 20 cents just in the last five or six days," he said. A month ago, "it was at least 50 cents higher."

His gas prices are set by the rack price - the cost of gas to dealers - plus the mileage charged to haul it from the distributor (White Oak C-Mart pays 7 cents a mile from Missoula) plus federal and state taxes. Salaries and other costs of doing business puts his current profit margin at a slim 10 percent. Two years ago, he said, it was 2 percent.

Gas prices don't do much to change his customer traffic in the store. That honor goes to tourists, he said.

His regular customers need to fill up regardless of price, so from 7 to 8 a.m. and from 4:30 to 6 p.m. every day he drops the pump price by a nickel.

"I don't think people are going to drive all the way down here from Kalispell to get their gas. We're doing it for the people that feed me in February," Brearey said. "We have some of the most loyal customers around, and if that's something I can help my customers with I'm happy to do it."

Even in far-flung Coram, where the delivery price from its suppliers is much greater than for stations in Kalispell, the Glacier Center ratcheted its price for regular gas down to $1.99.

"It's tough," manager Missy Sweeney said Friday morning. "It's great for us consumers, but when it drops so quickly it's difficult to keep up with it. When you get a delivery, you've got to ink it out.

"If consumers can go down the street and pay 5 cents a gallon less, they'll do it," Sweeney said. "It's a game."

Last week's price for regular at Glacier Center dropped from $2.19 to about $2.14 before plummeting to Friday's $1.99. She's not making any guesses on where it will go from here.

"All you have to do is double the price then drop it," she said, tongue-in-cheek, "and everybody's ecstatic to pay $2 a gallon."

Reporter Nancy Kimball can be reached at 758-4483 or by e-mail at nkimball@dailyinterlake.com