35 responses so far ↓

• 1 E // Jan 30, 2009 at 12:52 pm

  Has to be a joke…
  I’m wondering if an employee with access to the plastic numbers is putting them up…taking a photo…then taking them down.

  If it’s real, anyone who’d pay $6.89 for a gallon of fuel when it’s under $2 all over town….well…they need to be separated from their money…call it a ‘stupid tax’.

• 2 jake // Jan 30, 2009 at 12:54 pm

  It’s not a joke and the person taking the photographs has no ties to Wal-Mart.

• 3 Bob // Jan 30, 2009 at 1:00 pm

  This is not funny. But clearly we can’t wait for state or metro government to handle these crimes. So–boycott. Boycott Pilot gas stations. They already have been fined for gouging last year and are being sued right now. Don’t buy anything from them. Same with Wal-Mart. They want to gouge on gasoline when people are in trouble? Boycott Wal-Mart. Don’t buy gas. Don’t buy anything from them. Same for the next criminal. Stop buying from them. They are stealing from you–don’t allow it to happen. Buy somewhere, anywhere else.

• 4 E // Jan 30, 2009 at 1:03 pm

  I just called them…a nice young lady said
  their sign was messed up, that NO WAY were they charging 6.89. She says ‘messed up’…I’m still thinking prank.
  I’m very familiar with the area…the photo was taken from an oil change company or White Castle.

  This particular area of Bardstown Road actually has some of the best gas prices in town…as Mt Washington is just down the road, and gas almost always costs less in Mt Washington…and most of those who commute on Bardstown Road know it.

• 5 jake // Jan 30, 2009 at 1:09 pm

  Funny, because I called about 11:20 and asked for their price. The girl told me it was 6-something and I told her the OAG had been notified, and that I’d posted photos. Didn’t sound like a prank to me.

  The person taking photos for me is a long-time friend who was at the gas station. They went to the station for us solely to check the price and snap photos, and they’ve been checking on a regular basis, monitoring their wildly fluctuating prices.

• 6 E // Jan 30, 2009 at 1:10 pm

  Bob…take a deep breath dude.
  WalMart is not charging exorbitant prices (6.89) for gas…if they were I can assure you a mile down the road are some of the best prices in town.
  If it were true, it would not be funny.
  But that it’s not…and that you’ve got your shorts in a bunch…well that is kind of funny.

• 7 jake // Jan 30, 2009 at 1:13 pm

  Again, “E”, read what I wrote above.

  They were, indeed, charging 6-something when I called and started raising hell.

• 8 E // Jan 30, 2009 at 1:13 pm

  I drive right past this WalMart on the way home.
  I’ll stop in and buy some gas this evening. For better or worse…I’ll post the results.

• 9 E // Jan 30, 2009 at 1:16 pm

  Then again…that’s a plastic sign on the side of an awning.
  It’s the pump price that counts…any receipts floating around out there?

  $1.89 is much more in line with prices for the area.

• 10 anon // Jan 30, 2009 at 1:49 pm

  Someone should go by a quarter gallon or something to see what the pump price actually is. (I don’t live anywhere near Louisville or I’d do this myself.) Bet the AG would love to see that receipt.

  Also, if they are charging that much is anyone notifying the TV stations?

• 11 E // Jan 30, 2009 at 1:57 pm

  I’ll fill up there tonight.

• 12 Republican // Jan 30, 2009 at 3:17 pm

  I see all this hatred for Wal-Mart. What, exactly, is the relationship between Wal-Mart and Murphy USA? The only thing I know is that Murphy USA stations are located on Wal-Mart lots, and they take Wal-Mart gift cards as payment.

  There has to be a reason that gas stations at Sam’s Club gas stations are branded “Sam’s Club” and gas stations at Wal-Mart are branded “Murphy USA.”

• 13 Republican // Jan 30, 2009 at 3:19 pm

  Also, I can’t wait to hear David Adams come on here and try to justify nearly 7 bucks a gallon for gas.

• 14 E // Jan 30, 2009 at 4:26 pm

  Republican,
  I don’t think David Adams will have to justify anything to you.
  I just bought gas at this very station for $1.89, and as opposed to a photo of a malfunctioning sign…I have the receipt to prove it.

  C’mon people…use your brains. Ask a few questions before you let your emotions take you down the path of presumption.

  How could Murphy hope to sell a drop of fuel with Marathon and Speedway less than a mile south selling for $1.89 all week.

  Do you really think WalMart/Murphy would be stupid enough to charge FIVE DOLLARS MORE A GALLON at the same time the state attorney general was announcing fines on Pilot for gouging that wouldn’t even come close to $5 over and above market price ?

  Everyone else, including Murphy/WalMart is at $1.89…is it so out of the realm of possibility that the sign would malfunction…showing a 4 or a 6 instead of a one ?

  THINK!

• 15 E // Jan 30, 2009 at 5:09 pm

  I forgot to mention, Kroger , which is about 200yards from this station, at $1.92, but with your handy dandy Kroger card…$1.82.

  It just doesn’t add up that Murphy would charge $6.89 or even $4.89.
  It makes even less sense that someone would ever pay it.

  A probable malfunctioning sign means nothing…lets see a receipt.

• 16 jake // Jan 30, 2009 at 5:25 pm

  Okay, Ed, can you read?

  If so, read the story and read my comments.

  The woman answering the telephone TOLD ME the price was “$6-something per gallon”…

  At about 2:50, the OAG called our offices to inform us that the station was now charging $1.89 per gallon of gasoline, regardless of what may have been charged earlier.

  You need to quit freaking out. Jesus H. Christ.

• 17 Bob // Jan 30, 2009 at 6:05 pm

  We know that gas prices here are way more than they should be. We know that Pilot got fined. We know that a lawsuit is in the courts now for other gougers. My comment stands–Pilot, Walmart, Thornton’s—wherever gouging is found, a boycott should follow. That will keep people more honest than most other penalties.
  And E–Babe–you’ve just got to get over your fixation on my shorts.

• 18 E // Jan 30, 2009 at 6:51 pm

  I actually stopped by and asked the manager , face to face, if they had charged 4.89 or even 6.89 ( it’s on my way home).
  She flat out said NO it was a sign malfunction.

• 19 jake // Jan 30, 2009 at 6:53 pm

  Then one would think something as simple as a sign malfunction would have been mentioned on our telephone call that was nothing short of thorough?

• 20 E // Jan 30, 2009 at 8:05 pm

  Then one of us spoke to someone who didn’t know what they were talking about, and one of us spoke to someone who did. It happens.
  To be fair, I could have been the one to get the faulty info, I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

  I’m sure given that the state of emergency rules are in effect, which target gouging…if the station did in fact charge 4 or 5 dollars above normal prices…the OAG will hammer them, and we’ll know for sure whether or not they gouged or not.
  But until such time, I’ll allow for ‘innocent until proven guilty’.

  Hindsight is 20/20…but it sure would have been helpful one way or the other, had the person who snapped the photos bought a few dollars worth of gas to see what was being charged at the pump.
  A picture is worth a thousand words…but in this case, a receipt would be priceless.

• 21 E // Jan 30, 2009 at 8:08 pm

  Bob,
  One comment does not constitute a fixation.

• 22 Jinx // Jan 30, 2009 at 8:38 pm

  Sign malfunction?? Yea, sounds about a reasonable as a certain “wardrobe malfunction” which just happened to coincide with the musical lyric that she was going to be naked at the end of the song.

• 23 E // Jan 30, 2009 at 10:26 pm

  That’s right Jinx, a malfunction.
  A cheap plastic and metal sign on an awning, outdoors, after an ice storm , after functioning for some half dozen years or more….malfunctioned.

  Is it really that hard to believe?

  Or do you find it easier to believe that one high profile gas station (not an independent but part of a chain no less) would actually try to charge almost $7 for a gallon of gas while everyone else was charging less than $2, after they had been called on it a few days earlier?

• 24 Republican // Jan 30, 2009 at 10:49 pm

  Don’t see how it could be a “malfunction” if those numbers are changed manually. A “malfunction” would be if an electronic sign somehow displayed the wrong number.

  If this is some sort of prank or joke, whoever did it ought to be fired. No one is going to drive in and get gas at $4.89 or $6.89 when, like E says, everyone else is charging less than two bucks.

  The $1.89 price is in line with what stations in my part of the state are charging, which is not surprising considering this is an expensive part of Kentucky in which to buy gas and the stations in Louisville have to sell that RFG crap.

  And my David Adams comment was sarcasm. He thinks the type of price gouging we saw back during hurricane season is justified.

  Personally, I think Conway ought to be investigating collusion, not gouging. Something ain’t right when all the stations along a strip have the same price or close to it, and when one jerks the price up, everyone else does too. I understand lowering your price if a competitor does, but raising it if a competitor does so your price matches his just doesn’t make sense.

  After all, Wal-Mart, Kroger and IGA don’t all charge the same for a 6-pack of Coke or a dozen eggs, and Wal-Mart, H.H. Gregg (I would have said Circuit City but they’re going belly up) and Best Buy don’t charge the same price for the same digital camera.

  If Conway can bust up collusion on gas prices, he’d never lose an election in this state ever again.

• 25 Bob // Jan 30, 2009 at 11:15 pm

  Good point on collusion, Republican.

  E. Dude. That makes two comments. If you plan to move ahead on this you should at least invite me out for a beer or two.

• 26 Julie // Jan 31, 2009 at 3:06 am

  Hi. I don’t know any of you but I think I can help. I was at that station when the sign read 4.89. The other side of the station awning (the side you can’t see from the picture) said 1.89, and they were only charging 1.89. Then I saw it the same way when it went up to 6.89 (with 1.89 on the other side). Must have been the way the wind was blowing or perhaps the storm broke that tile?

• 27 E // Jan 31, 2009 at 9:27 am

  Thanks so much Julie.
  So there you have it folks…an eyewitness that had the intellect to actually look a little further than just one sign.

  Everyone can return from their journey to presumption now.

  I think the person who started all of this BS with one photo of one sign, owes someone an apology.
  The other sign was right next to it…they had to see it…but they went on with the
  deception anyway.

• 28 jake // Jan 31, 2009 at 9:58 am

  Sorry, Ed, having somebody from a SprintPCS phone post a comment doesn’t make them an eyewitness.

  Again, Ed, I’m not sure if you can’t read or are selectively refusing to read, but READ THIS STORY, ALONG WITH THE UPDATE. Jesus Christ. It’s like you have a boner for Wal-Mart and are suffering from an ailment called priapism… thanks to a little blue pill. Wal-Mart priapism.

  The person who took the photos didn’t start any bullshit and owes no one an apology.

  I drove my own happy ass out there – and, no, there was no other sign visible with any other price. And the sign that was visible from the road – the photo that was taken – wasn’t mechanical. It’s the kind of plastic sign you change by hand. So there’s no way for the sign to malfunction– First at $4 and then at $6– without manually changing it.

  Further, the woman who answered the telephone at the station clearly wasn’t playing a game when she told me the price was $6-something. And the Office of the Attorney General wouldn’t have bothered to look into things if there wasn’t more reason than a photograph.

  Now, people, READ before commenting. Especially if you’re intelligent enough to be able to digest context clues and such. And stop trying to spin.

• 29 Linda // Jan 31, 2009 at 11:09 am

  There is NO WAY I’m EVER shopping at that Walmart again!

• 30 E // Jan 31, 2009 at 11:40 am

  Then I guess we’ll have to see if the OAG takes any action. I would expect them to look into every complaint, phone or photo, as that’s what they’ve said they would do.

  I don’t see how what a person posts their comment from has anything to do with the voracity of their comment.

  I fill up there often enough, this sign from a distance looks like the old fashioned plastic number types. However this particular sign has vinyl rolls behind a plastic window. They roll or unroll to make visible different numbers. You can actually see this in the $4.89 photo, as the 3 is peeping out from the edge.

  I do shop at WM, but I’ve never taken the blue pill, certainly don’t have a chubby for WM….and couldn’t spend more than 2 hours in WalMart anyway…if I did, I’d have to call my doctor.

  ‘WalMart priapism’, that’s a good one!

• 31 Ed Springston // Jan 31, 2009 at 1:18 pm

  lmao. Maybe some one was playing a prank maybe not but the bottom line is simple. THAT is a mechanical sign that is changed by hand not electronic.

  That means it was not accidnetal no matter how you spin it. Good job Jake pointing this garbage out.

  If it was an employee they should be fired and based on the convo Jake had with an employee there it would seem it was above a cashier’s head to do this.

• 32 E // Jan 31, 2009 at 3:36 pm

  The sign is not changed by someone physically hanging new numbers. The sign changes numbers by an motor rolling the vinyl placards inside the sign.

  A malfunctioning sign or a conversation does not rise to proof of gouging…where’s the receipt ?

• 33 Larry West // Feb 1, 2009 at 11:26 am

  Even at $1.89 it is still gouging because of the weather. I bought gas at that Wal-Mart last Monday (before the storm hit) and it was $1.68. The Kroger had just raised their price to $1.95 ($1.85 after discount) at the time.

• 34 Not E // Feb 1, 2009 at 9:55 pm

  Wow, E. Are you being paid by the gas station to so vehemently defend them? Give it a rest, already.

• 35 E // Feb 2, 2009 at 9:49 am

  No…I’m not being paid by a gas station.
  I just happen to ‘think’ I’m right (but it may play out that I’m wrong…I accept that possibility).
  I tend to be an idealist…which means I’ll stand for what I think is right even if it’s not the popular stand.

  But if the gas stations were to want to pay me, I’d take their money :-)

  So ‘NotE’, unless you have something empirical or substantive to add to the discussion, go take your uninspired ‘mob mentality/piling on’ posts somewhere else…because you just wasted 20 words in a futile attempt at a personal attack. You’re also very late to the game, which makes your attempt at an attack seem all the more pathetic.

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