Soaring Gas Prices Burn Fairfield Drivers

David Scherran is painfully aware of gas prices across Fairfield County. As a salesman covering the tri-state area, he spends a lot of time in his car, and a lot of money to get where he needs to go. So when he saw a bargain (relatively speaking) like $3.59 per gallon gas at Citgo on Black Rock Turnpike Wednesday afternoon, he took it.

“I’ve seen some places in New York that are over $4,” David said. “So I just go down this strip here, trying to find the cheapest. Whether it’s a couple cents here, a couple cents there, it all adds up.”

Though Fairfield still places better than some other towns along the Gold Coast, gas prices in town have soared over the past few weeks, and keep rising by the hour. The user-sourced database at ConnecticutGasPrices.com cannot even keep up.

On Wednesday for example, the site listed Citgo among the cheapest at $3.53, according to a customer who bought gas at 8:20 a.m. By 2 p.m., the price was a full six cents higher. That still beat the $3.61 at Irving down the street, which had a price of $3.49 per gallon that morning.

Even the people supplying the gas cannot get a break. Bill, a truck driver for a local distributor, says he doesn’t even get a discount to fill up his rig. “I pay the same as everybody else,” he said.

Bill also shed some light on how the prices continuously change throughout the day. Commodities markets set the going rate for gasoline three times each day — 6 a.m., noon and 6 p.m., he said. So it would be smartest to fill up as early in the day as possible.

For most Fairfielders, however, shopping around and timing fill-ups is difficult. Andrea Ward says she tries to go to stations where she’s seen cheaper gas before. She also tries to do as much as possible in one trip to town to cut down on her gas use. But mostly she hasn’t changed her life around just to save on fuel.

“You’re used to living your life a certain way for so many years, and all of a sudden the economy crashes and prices go up,” Andrea says. “It’s hard to live your life differently.”

Where do you see the cheapest gas in Fairfield? Share tips with your neighbors in the comments below.

 

 

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