( Breitbart )
A gas station in the Northern California town of Mendocino is reportedly charging nearly $10 per gallon, making it the most expensive gas station in the country, as fuel prices continue to climb nationwide.
As locan ABC affiliate KFSN-30 in Fresno, California, reported:
Schlafer’s Auto Repair is selling regular gas for $9.60 for a gallon. But that’s not the worst part, if your car requires plus then you’ll have to shell out $9.69 and if you need supreme, well, get ready to pay $9.91 for just a gallon of gas. According to GasBuddy, it’s the most expensive gas in the country.
That is far higher than the state average of $6.371 as of Tuesday, which is the highest in the country; nationwide, the average is $4.919, according to the American Automobile Association.
There are many reasons for the high price — such as the fact that Mendocino is fairly remote, and that California as a whole pays higher prices due to hight taxes and a relative lack of refineries.
The owner, Judith Schlafer, explained further to SFGate.com:
Running a small town, independent gas station is “a real hard business,” said Schlafer. Because she buys in comparably small quantities compared to high-volume stations in the city or places like Costco and Safeway, the price she pays, she says, has gone “sky high.” For years, she said, she carried up to $80,000 in debt for the Chevron gasoline she was buying. “I said, ‘I can’t keep going like this.’” Now she prices it to pay for a truckload in 10 days. Another contributor to the high costs, she says, is the fact that her station sells only gas and offers basic maintenance, like wiper replacements and brake light repairs. Other stations, she notes, have convenience stores. “It’s really hard up here to stay in business,” Schlafer said. “I don’t have a convenience store to mark up the food and the trinkets.” At one point, she said, she was offered the opportunity to attach a convenience store to the station, but it would have cost $100,000. She didn’t have it, she said.
She professed to be surprised that her gas station was the most expensive in the country, and said she could not afford to lower her price.