Two petrol stations in western Sydney dropped their prices today to 94.9 cents per litre, down from the regular price of $1.46. The move caused hour-long traffic queues, with angry drivers shouting and sounding horns as their frustration mounted. They got more angry as the stations put their price up to 139.9 a few hours later.
Police were trying to control traffic flow but said it was close to gridlock.
Carl Partridge, 21, was given leave by his boss to go and fill up quickly while the price was still below $1. But 2½ hours later he was still in the queue and the price had gone up 40 cents a litre.
"I’m pretty pissed off,"
he said.
"They shouldn’t be allowed to do it. They put it down to 99 cents. They should do it for the rest of the day, not just for whenever they feel like it … it’s unfair."
He said he had seen at least six verbal fights in the queue. "It’s not a pretty sight," he said.
Navneet Kaur, also 21, lined up for more than an hour. She joined the queue when prices were 94 cents, but as she neared the front they had reached more than $1.39. She saved about $6 on a tank that would usually have cost her $70.
"I was so angry, it was ridiculous … it wasn’t worth the wait."
I suppose I shouldn’t be so amazed at how crazy people get over the chance to save a few dollars (I don’t understand the post Christmas sales either – I couldn’t think of much worse than queuing outside a store for hours to fight through a crowd to maybe find something I wanted at a decent discount).
When I think about it 50 cents a litre in my car works out a bit under $30 for a full tank. Would I queue for an hour to save $30? Not likely, I value my time way more than that. Not to mention that many of those trying to buy would have driven some way to get in the queue, spent time idling and using petrol so they’ve probably saved themselves somewhat less than $30. While saving money on petrol is always nice, I don’t think I’d go out of my way to do it, and I certainly wouldn’t have gotten in the queue if it was more than a few cars long.
As for the people who got into fights over it …. get a grip!
