There hasn't been much to be happy about with the current economy, but customers at some local service stations were smiling this week as gas prices dropped below $3, for the first time in almost a year.
A steady line of vehicles filled up for $2.99 a gallon for unleaded regular gasoline at Xtra Mart on Wakelee Avenue in Ansonia and for $2.98 a gallon at Bob's Service Center on Stratford Avenue in Stratford Tuesday afternoon.
"We have two people pumping all the time just to keep the line moving," said Richard Scioscia, of Oxford who manages Xtra Mart for his father and also pumps the gas. "We're getting two loads of gas a day."
Sitting in the two lines stretching six deep were a taxi, a rented Home Depot truck, a DeCola Landscaping truck and John Toth's Bridgeport Canteen truck.
"I was hoping for something like this," said Mark Keene, a foreman at DeCola Landscaping in Fairfield. Keene had a credit card ready not only to fill up the truck but several canisters to run his lawnmowers, weed trimmers and blowers.
"Every little bit helps," he said. "I've been paying $300 to $325 a week for gas."
Toth was glad to see a price drop but "no matter whether its $2 or $5 I have to buy it."
While Scioscia said the key to business was keeping his customers moving and the price dropping, two competitors just a few blocks away, Diamond and NKB, were down to $2.95 a gallon.
Even lower is Cumberland Farms on the Boston Post Road in
Milford, at $2.91. Lowest still is the price at Costco in Milford which was at $2.889 Tuesday morning. But Costco requires consumers to pay an annual membership fee.
On Tuesday, AAA reported that the average cost of a gallon of unleaded regular gasoline in Connecticut was $3.20. That's 5 cents lower than Monday and 60 cents lower than a month ago.
The last time the average cost was 2.99 was Oct. 31, 2007, according to a AAA spokesperson.
Why the drop?
AAA and Eugene Guilford, executive director of the Independent Connecticut Petroleum Association, believe it's a combination of factors.
First, motorists began conserving this summer because of the high prices. Then there's the drop in the dollar's value.
That caused the cost of a barrel of crude oil to continually drop since the July 3 high of $146 down to Tuesday's price of $79.30 a barrel.
Then the worldwide financial crisis hit, taking investment banks and brokerage firms with it. That kicked speculators out of the crude oil market.
That latter factor is the main reason, according to Michael Fox, executive director of the Gasoline and Automotive Service Dealers of America.
"No one wants to admit it, but that's the real story," Fox said. "They kept bidding up and bidding up futures contracts and that created a false demand. The oil companies looked at that price of $146 a barrel and decided that's what they were going to base production costs on. As a result the oil companies made billions in profits."
But for consumers like Amarilis Mendez and William Grace, both of Bridgeport, who bought $20 of gas at Bob's in Stratford and Ken Kenyuck, of Monroe, and Laura Brothers, of Oxford, who filled up at Xtra Mart in Ansonia before heading home, Tuesday's prices brought a good feeling.
"I've been cutting back on driving, maybe I'll do more now," said Mendez, who had her son, David, 4, with her.
Kenyuck said he first became aware of Xtra Mart's low prices weeks ago.
"I happened to see it at $3.19 here a few weeks ago, and that is considerably lower than what it would cost me in Monroe," he said. "I thought this was a cash only price. When they said no it was the same for credit cards, how could I resist?"
