Mongo Was Right

Did you see or notice this?

The price of gasoline jumped 20 cents overnight.

Crazy.

I saw this at the QT convenience store at 72nd Wornall.

Insane.

It isn't often you see a seller jump their prices more than 14% literally overnight. And I can't imagine what world or local event made them do this. I'm sure it was just a corporate meeting and they decided "Hey, let's just jump those prices 20 cents more per gallon. Done."

Mongo was right.

And we're Mongo.

Be safe out there, y'all. Be well. And stay home.

All Hail Price Chopper and Quik Trip

Check this out.

The above price per gallon is what I paid yesterday, in Kansas City, in Waldo at the Quik Trip on Wornall.

I was stunned.

What made this possible is Price Chopper's Rewards Card.  Mind you, I don't buy much groceries, either, being a single guy. That said, I really rack up points nicely. Then, with their rewards card, you go to Quik trip, scan the card, then scan your credit or debit card and voila! With your points, you can save 37 cents, presently, on each gallon of gasoline, up to 20 gallons at a purchase.

I will never buy groceries or gasoline anywhere else again.

Watch "Big Oil's" profits in 3rd Quarter 2012

Monday, I noticed I was apparently one of the last people in the area to pay "only" $3.59 per gallon for gasoline for my car. I noticed the signage at the Quik Trip I pulled into had already been changed to $3.72 per gallon. I was paying that lower $3.59 rate per gallon.

Yesterday, Tuesday, I noticed it had gotten all the way up to $3.79 per gallon in the area--a 20 cent jump in two days.

The reason, I noted?

There had been a huge explosion at an oil refinery in Venezuela and Hurricane Isaac was rather notoriously making its way into the Gulf of Mexico, where so many oil rigs are, and on into New Orleans and Louisiana.

The fact is, on this, the oil companies shot their price up immediately, even though their costs for that oil and gasoline hadn't changed an iota. Not one bit.

So watch, folks. Watch the reports in October when the reports of "Big Oil's" profits come out. See what Exxon-Mobil and all the oil companies made at this time while you and I pay so much more at the pump.

I feel sure we're going to see some huge, huge profits from them.

And it all comes right out of our pockets, as we know.

Ever feel like a chump?

Links: http://www.kshb.com/dpp/news/local_news/experts-gas-prices-will-surge-as-storm-surges

http://articles.marketwatch.com/2012-08-28/markets/33428180_1_oil-futures-rise-safety-and-environmental-enforcement-gasoline-futures

Gasoline hike over dinner

In case you don't know or were unaware, gasoline prices at the pump, at Quik Trip stations, anyway, just went up this evening. Before 7 pm, they were $3.57 per gallon. By 9 pm, they became $3.69/gallon. If you can go to another, less well-managed station between now and dawn and get it less expensive and you need gas, it might be a good idea to do so. Just saying.

The annual, ugly, very unpatriotic Independence Day screwing

Well, good morning and welcome to the annual, very unpatriotic Independence Day screwing we always get from Corporate Amerika and the gas stations, coast to coast. As I went to work today, I noticed gasoline jumped at least approximately 15 cents--from $3.27 per gallon yesterday (when I filled up, thank goodness) to today's cost (on the East side of town, anyway) of $3.42 a gallon. Thank you, Quik Trip, et. al and happy 4th of July to you, too. Doesn't it seem as though some representative in government should propose a law making this annual holiday gouging illegal? And not just on our national patriotic holiday but Thanksgiving, Christmas, all of them? Does it seem right they can get away with this? It sure doesn't to me. And it particularly doesn't on the day we celebrate the country's birth, the opportunistic, exploitative bastards. (To borrow a phrase from another local blogger, "You kids get off my lawn!").

The Quik Trip response to the earlier post

Quik Trip's response to my earlier post today on their discarding usable food in their stores 3 times a week:

Thanks for the email.“First and foremost to QuikTrip and our customers is food safety and quality. Currently QuikTrip has partnered with Harvester in the Kansas City area to develop a program that maintains our food safety program, maintains the quality and integrity of our fresh food offer and helps feed our neighbors who are in need.
We have strict guidelines in place that accomplishes this for some of our food products, the items you mentioned currently do not fit that criteria. The fresh deli sandwiches, salads and fruit cups that are in protective covering, are products we are able to contribute to Harvesters. The fresh pastry items that never leave our sterile production environment are also donated to the food bank.
Hopefully in the near future we will be able to donate all of our unsold food. I hope your piece will say although not perfect in your eyes, QuikTrip is making a difference and will continue to assist those who need help.”

The good news is that at least they do save some food and give it to Harvesters and there is a program in place.

The bad news is that all this other food is being wasted, at least 3 times a week and there's a great deal of it, from each store.

Here's hoping they get the rest of this food going to someone who can use it.

And as soon as possible.

(My thanks to QT for a response---and a quick one, at that, being the same day.)

Quik Trip (QT) and their ugly, unnecessary, irresponsible waste

I was going home late last evening and stopped by a Quik Trip (QT) up North, on 169 Highway in Smithville.  There was a rather large guy there, with these big, black storage tubs (20" deep maybe by 3' long?) and he was throwing all the fruit--which wasn't spoiled, by the way, by any means--and baked goods (doughnuts, muffins, etc.) into the tubs.

Naturally, my first reaction was--and I asked him--"You're giving that to Harvesters, right?"

His answer was quick and negative.

It was all going to be thrown away.

The apples looked "new" as though they were still at a grocery store on the shelves.  Same with the bananas.  As for the baked goods, well, those things always look okay unless they're REALLY old--a week or more?--so you can't tell freshness until you bite into them.

If I had gotten there at 8:30, I could have bought and eaten it.  By 9 o'clock, however, it was to be trash.

I was disgusted by the waste so I repeated my question and incredulousness to the young lady at the checkout counter:  Was it really going to be thrown away?

She answered that she thought QT had announced a recent program to start giving it all to Harvesters for their volunteers.  She understood Harvesters couldn't give it away to the poor or homeless, she said, for fear of making someone sick--and I totally get that, the liability issue--but that it hadn't started yet.

So here's the deal.  I hope someone, anyone, at Quik Trip sees this posting today and can get back to me to say that the food is, very soon, no longer going to be wasted and thrown away.

Somebody, please tell me this is going to change.

That is an incredibly large amount of food, thrown away every Monday, Wednesday and Friday evenings, I was told, and repeated at all their stores, throughout the area and chain.

Having just gone to their corporate website, they show a long list of organizations they work with and supposedly benefit--I don't doubt it--but Harvesters is not on the list and there is no recent announcement shown on the site, either, saying that they've started this new program.

Here's hoping.

This has got to change.  That food could help a LOT of people, one way or another, and still not hurt their sales in any way.

Good news/bad news

The good news?

There is a thought/feeling/belief spreading that maybe we've seen the worst of the recession and that, maybe, we're pulling back out of it.

The bad?

Look where the price of gasoline and oil is--and is headed.

Yesterday we hit $54.57 per barrel and it's likely headed higher.

It's as I said earlier here, with so many people having lost money, one way or another, in the last year or so, a whole lotta' people are going to try to hedge their bets with the "sure thing" of higher prices for oil when the economy comes back. They'll be buying oil stocks like no one's business.

Yesterday? Gas was $1.84 a gallon near my office so I made sure I filled up.

Today?

$1.94/gallon.

And Congress and the White House are too busy with everything else to put limits on oil speculation back in our government that were taken out in 2000, which caused the $147.00 per barrel cost last year.

To quote Margo Channing: "Fasten your seatbelts, it's going to be a bumpy night!"