For several months, I've been noticing a trend. If you drive enough around Germany at different times of the day.....passing gas stations....you start to notice wide variations of the pricing. We aren't talking three or four cents....it's more like ten to seventeen cents.
Today, Focus put up an article discussing the matter, and how German society is simply accepting this change.
Most gas stations in Germany are now hooked up to electronic gas pricing signs. The boss can update the sign hundreds of times per day. Statistics are now being employed to show gas station owners of times when people tend to stop, or to pass by a gas station.
The highest prices? Well....it's in the hours prior to six AM. The logic being that gas station operations have to pay their evening employees more....so they need to make up for that 'loss'.
Last week, I came to pass one station that had gas down to 1.48 Euro a liter. This was in mid-afternoon. After five PM.....passing the same station, it was back to 1.56 Euro a liter. An eight-cent difference in just a three hour period.
What does all this equal? Well....it challenges Germans to continually be mindful of the best deal....at any time of the day. Sadly, you could be on your way to a wedding or funeral.....already behind on the schedule, with at least sixty-percent of your tank full....then seeing a station offering 1.46 Euro a liter in front of you. Naturally.....you are going to stop and fill up....even if you don't have the time, or the necessity to fill up.
If you had suggested to me a decade ago that a station might run through twelve different pricing situations for the same level of gas....in a twenty-four hour period....I would have said you were crazy. Well.....we've arrived at this point.
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