DAYTONA BEACH -- When area resident Catherine Kendricks drove past the Sunoco gas station where she normally buys gasoline at 100 Daytona Ave. on Monday morning the price was $3.39.
But when Kendricks stopped after 2 p.m. Monday to buy gas, the price had jumped to $3.45.
"It's crazy, especially when you've got a large car," said Hendricks, who drives an SUV. "I'm already looking for a small car."
Gasoline prices have skyrocketed in the past week, from an average of about $3.16 a gallon in Volusia and Flagler counties to $3.40 a gallon as of Sunday, according to the AAA Daily Fuel Gauge. But many other stations are much higher, such as $3.48 a gallon at the Rite Track station Kendricks passed up at Ridgewood Avenue and Sixth Street.
Sunoco spokesman Thomas Golembeski said the company's prices are competitively priced and are at the mercy of a widely traded commodity. "As a result, supply and demand are important factors that contribute to prices for both raw materials (crude oil) and refined products (gasoline and diesel fuel)," Golembeski said in an e-mail.
The open market forces are leaving Avi Patel, owner of the Get N Go Citgo station at 1290 Nova Road in Holly Hill, with fewer customers, even though his price was more average at $3.39 a gallon Monday afternoon.
Customers are buying less gasoline and spending less money inside his store, Patel said. "It is affecting business."
Jack Giles, who stopped by Get N Go to get some gas, said he has stopped filling up his vehicle. "I am putting less gas in. I spend a few dollars here and a few dollars there," Giles said, while he waits for gasoline prices to head back down.
Dean Muhammad, manager at the Shell station at the corner of Nova Road and Mason Avenue, said his customers are not happy with the rising cost and have been very vocal about it. "They are using more credit cards," Muhammad said Monday.
Some customers, he said, even debate openly whether to spend $6 for a pack of cigarettes or pump more gasoline.
"Shell sets the price, not us," he said, adding his lease is only for the convenience store.
Muhammad said he also has seen consumers buy regular gas who did use only the higher grades. "Gasoline is one of those things that people complain about, but you need it," he said.
Lawrence J. Belcher, a professor of finance at Stetson University in DeLand, said consumers have few choices beyond cutting back on driving.
"I don't want to sound flippant," Belcher said, noting that events in other parts of the work are driving up the cost.
"It is painfully obvious that what is going on in the Middle East is the big driver," he said in a telephone interview.
Fears the supply could be cut off by the conflict there, as well as concerns the shipping lanes may shut down have driven up the cost and it is just filtering down to the pump, he said.
At this point, he said, no one knows what kind of governments will exist once the chaos settles in Libya and the Middle East.
Until then, he said, consumers might want to look at carpooling and price shopping.
"If you are in tight budget already, this is one of those things you can't plan for. It is totally random and of an uncertain magnitude." he said.
Matthew Curran, of the state Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, said the state has seen a rise in the number of calls from residents upset about rising gasoline cost.
"But it is an open market and competition sets the prices," said Curran, chief of the bureau of petroleum inspection.
"We can't lower prices. If a state of emergency kicked in, that is when the state's price gouges laws would come into play," he said.
