GREENE – Devin Hutchinson of Turner grimaced as he put $5 worth of gas in his Pontiac Wednesday.
The price on the Landry’s Quick Stop pump was $3.29 for regular. The day before it was $2.59.
“This is painful!” Hutchinson said. “I don’t understand. Why don’t we tap our oil reserve or something?”
Hutchinson said he put gas in his car three days ago. “I should have filled up. It was $2.50 or $2.60 a gallon. I thought that was ridiculous. It’s crazy. What is $5 going to get me? A gallon? I’ve never seen it over $3.”
The high prices are prompting Hutchinson to make some changes. “I do drywall. Right now I’m working in Portland.” He works with a friend, and they used to ride in his friend’s truck to work. “Now we use his wife’s car. It’s better on gas.”
His own car is a four-cylinder. “It’s good, but still,” Hutchinson said, making a face about the prices. “This is ridiculous.”
In Lewiston, Pamela Packard of Leeds bought gas Wednesday at Cumberland Farms. She paid $3.17 a gallon for regular. “I couldn’t believe it,” she said. “I got the ‘cheap stuff.’ That’s outrageous. Even oil prices are getting sky high.”
Packard drives a four cylinder that gets good gas mileage. “But, I just bought three gallons for $10. Unbelievable.”
In Mexico, Alan Mitchell of Jay was fueling at the FoodTrend Exxon, paying $2.89 a gallon. “I commute from Jay to Rumford every day, so it’s going to put a little bit of a dent in my checkbook.”
Carla Summers, manager of the Big Apple Mobil station on Route 2 in Rumford, where gas prices were $2.77 Wednesday, said customers were unhappy.
“We’ve been talking about getting armored vests, because we’re worried we’ll get shot at anytime we put up new prices,” Summers said. “Everybody’s been talking about prices, but they say they’re not doing nothing because they can’t do anything about it. Even a few of us here have been joking about getting a horse-drawn buggy.”
Until 4:30 p.m., the Irving station in Mexico had the lowest price around at $2.69, until the station ran out.
At that, customers flocked to the Big Apple. Summers said she received word to increase her prices to $2.89 for regular. She said she was holding off until 7 p.m. Wednesday.
Like his customers, Paul Landry said he got sticker shock from gas prices rising as high as the New Orleans water.
Landry owns the Landry’s Quick Stop in Greene, which according to an informal Sun Journal survey had the highest price in the region. From Monday to Tuesday Landry said his costs from his supplier climbed 24 cents a gallon. Tuesday night it went up again by 29 cents – a 53 cent jump in three days.
Selling gas is not profitable, Landry said. He estimated he grosses about 7 cents per gallon. After expenses, especially fees that retailers are charged from customers using debit and credit cards, it’s break-even, he said.
“I’ve never seen prices where they are today,” he said. “They say Americans don’t realize how good they have it compared to European nations,” where gas prices are higher, Landry said. “It’s taking a high demand and a disaster for us to see we need to be more conservative.”
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