LOS ANGELES — Lots of things cost about three bucks, from a pair of socks to a takeout burrito. But one of life's essentials has never made the list.
By Jeff Chiu, AP
Until now.
A handful of service stations in California, Illinois, Nevada, Washington state and Hawaii have begun selling self-serve unleaded regular gasoline for — gulp — $3 or more a gallon. Truckers are enduring three-buck diesel fuel in some places. (Video: Prices continue to troll record highs)
With oil prices continuing to climb — worries about refinery outages pushed oil to trade at a record $67.10 a barrel last week before it dropped back to $66.27 Monday — $3 gas is a trend that could eventually spread.
Of course, gasoline isn't the first product to crash through the electric fence of pricing. No one drops a dime for a local pay-phone call anymore. It's been eons since Motel 6 charged $6 a night. But as the lifeblood of daily commuters, long-haul truckers and teenagers going on dates, fuel can make tempers flare faster than just about any other commodity. (Audio: Prices not likely to come down until fall.)
"It's robbery," said Robert Mercado, 59, a corporate security manager from Yorba Linda, Calif., as he pumped $3.09-a-gallon unleaded regular at a Texaco station in Los Angeles last week.
The drift toward the dreaded $3 mark would make gasoline the most expensive it has ever been even on an inflation-adjusted basis, not just a nominal one. Gas hit a record $1.417 in March 1981, the Energy Department says. Adjusted for inflation, that's $3.04 today.
Gas prices have a long way to go before $3 becomes the norm rather than the exception. The government said Monday that gas averaged a nominal record $2.550 a gallon, up 18.2 cents over the past week. Motorist club AAA said its average Monday was $2.48, up 7.1 cents overnight. Among states, California was the most expensive at $2.758; South Carolina the cheapest at $2.337.
Price shock
Leading the gas price parade are the stations selling unleaded regular for $2.999 and up — 19 of them out of 92,792 in a daily survey by GasBuddy.com, a Web site that tracks gas prices daily using reports from consumers. Metro areas where motorists may stumble upon the most expensive self-serve regular in the country include Chicago, Los Angeles, the San Francisco Bay Area, San Diego and the Hawaiian island of Maui.
The first reaction is usually shock. "Three dollars? You got to be kidding me. That's crazy," said Mike Lewis, 33, a Houston-based sales manager, recounting his thoughts as he pulled into the $3.09-a-gallon Texaco station near Los Angeles International Airport.
Reply With Quote
Seriously though... it reminds me of the guy on the street interviewing people and he approached a drunken street bum. He asked the drunk what he would do differently if he was in charge. The drunk said, " Thats easy. I'd divide all of the money up equally amongst everyone." The commentator said, " Okay, let's think about that for a moment. Don't you think that money would end up back in the same hands in a short period of time?" The drunk replied, " No no, you don't understand. I mean divide it up every saturday night." 
