Pain at the pump: Gas prices dismay customers

All sophomore Brad Mundy wanted to do was get on the road.\nThe South Bend native had loaded his father's Ford Expedition and prepared to head up State Road 37 to Indianapolis. He'd bought a cup of coffee and loaded his CD changer, ready to make the three hour trip home. All he needed was gas.\nSo he pulled into the Shell station at the corner of Third Street and College Mall Road, inserted his credit card and began filling the Expedition's tank.\nHe watched incredulously as the numbers began inching upward. Twenty dollars. Thirty. Thirty-five. The nozzle finally stopped at $39.45.\n"This is ridiculous," he said. "I know this is an SUV, but my God."\nWhen Mundy pulled into South Bend, he said, he was hit with gas prices approximately twenty cents cheaper.\nMundy isn't alone; in fact, despite a recent reprise in gas prices, consumers are increasingly discouraged by the nation's oil crisis, which has many Bloomington residents resorting to bicycle and pedestrian travel.\n"I just walk to class and stuff," sophomore Paul LeVasseur said, noting the "hassle" involved in filling up his Mercedes SUV regularly. "It's just so much easier to walk or catch the bus."\nThe fluctuations have incensed others however, provoking Bloomington resident Noble C. Reynolds to compose a letter to the editor of The Herald-Times in which he cited "price fixing" by cohorts in the gasoline industry as a reason for the ever-changing prices.\nIn late June, Bloomington Marathon station owner Bruce Brummett was selling unleaded gas at $1.369 per gallon. Prices have continued to fall, with Marathon, Bigfoot and Amoco subsidiaries selling regular unleaded at an average of $1.276 per gallon.\nBob Page, general manager of the South Walnut Avenue Bigfoot gas and convenience store, said price fluctuation doesn't really affect his store's revenue. Bigfoot relies primarily on in-store sales for profit.\n"It's really funny -- even though gas is so high, it doesn't stop people from driving," Page said. "It affects sales, of course, but people are still getting in their cars and driving places."\nThe decrease does often create problems for retailers, however, who buy gas at a set wholesale price. As pump prices fall, gas must be sold quickly or retailers run the risk of cutting costs to below the wholesale price. As a result, rural stations generating low-volume sales are often hardest hit.\nBut a media spokesman for Bigfoot in Indianapolis claimed lower pump prices often signify lower credit card fees for retailers. As a result, dealers often glean a greater profit margin.\nBut the market is volatile, Page said. \n"We have no idea how to predict how prices will rise or fall," he said. "It's just a numbers game, and people are going to have to buy gas to get where they're going"