These western Illinois twin cities along the banks of the Rock River are being treated to a spectacle that has been missing in recent years from the American street scene: the ”gas war.”
Gasoline at some branded stations is selling for 97.9 cents a gallon for unleaded regular.
Prices also are falling in the Chicago area, but there is something about a small-town atmosphere that adds fun to the fuel follies.
”I guess you could call it a gas war,” said Gail Schreiner, owner of the Schreiner Mobil service station and a Wal-Mart that serves the two towns with a combined population of 25,000 north of Illinois Highway 88, about 110 miles west of Chicago.
”I`ve been in the gasoline business for 28 years, and I can`t remember the last time there was a war,” he said, noting that his full-service station had reopened before Thanksgiving as a self-service operation.
The war, station owners in the two towns agree, started about three weeks ago when Johnson Shell Co. opened its fourth station, this one in Sterling, and matched the $1.14 price being charged by gas discounter Super America. Until then, branded stations had been selling unleaded for about $1.19 a gallon.
”It started in Sterling between them, and it just spread,” said Schreiner.
”I got a call to take the price down, and we went down,” said Super America station manager Jerome Stoikes. ”It went down then a couple of cents here and a couple of cents there to where we`re at today. It hadn`t been under a buck in a long time.”
Stoikes said Super America, a Minneapolis-based company, was holding the price Wednesday at 97.9 cents a gallon, the price branded stations matched Sunday. But probably not for long.
Unleaded fuel has been priced at below $1 per gallon for more than a week, Schreiner said.
Some Chicago suburban stations dropped below that level earlier this week, though city residents may never see such bargains because of additional city and Cook County taxes.
Nationwide, unleaded gasoline was selling for an average of $1.06 a gallon.
Gasoline price wars were common in the 1960s and early 1970s. They culled out the competition at a time when nearly every Tom, Dick and Harry owned a string of independent gas stations.
The Arab oil embargo in 1974 changed all that.
Oil companies, attempting to stretch short supplies, closed thousands of marginal stations as the price per gallon marched steadily skyward.
”It`s been a long, long time since the last gas war because of all the machinations of the oil companies,” said Robert Jacobs, executive director of the Illinois Gasoline Dealers Association.
”Hooray for the public, but it`s too bad for the dealers,” he said, noting that at 97.9 cents a gallon the dealers are operating dangerously close to what the gasoline costs them unless they are receiving subsidies from their oil companies.
Jacobs said it is likely gasoline prices, gas war or no gas war, probably will drop further because of plummeting demand brought on by increasing unemployment.
”People are only using their cars to look for a job,” he said, noting that oil companies have, in some cases, built up large inventories.
Residents of the two towns say they welcome the fight between the gas stations and hope it will continue.
”I know a lot of people that go through town who say our gas is a lot cheaper than anywhere else,” said an employee in the Rock Falls city clerk`s office.
”The customers love it. They say to keep it going,” said Stoikes, adding he doesn`t know when Super America will back off on selling gasoline at the cheapest price in town. ”It would be nice if it would keep going.”
But because there are no signs declaring a price war between the stations, some aren`t aware of the intense competition.
”I didn`t know we were having a gas war,” said an employee in the Whiteside County clerk`s office, noting that she just knew gasoline was selling for a lot less than a month ago.
Schreiner, while not wanting to offend customers, says he hopes the cheap gas comes to an end soon.
”I would love to see (the price) get back up again,” he said.
