This is the third consecutive year that NACS has surveyed consumers for the NACS Consumer Fuels Report as part of the association's annual gas price kit, which examines conditions and trends that could impact gasoline prices.
The [image-nocss] lone good economic news for consumers over the past six months has been a huge drop in gasoline prices, yet 59% of consumers say that high gasoline prices have a "very significant" effect on their spending behavior, substantially above the 45% who said the same in the 2008 consumer survey. To a much lesser extent, consumers said they were concerned about a slowdown in the national economy or a recession (41%), rising food costs and rising home energy costs (each 31%) and the credit crunch and lending crisis (21%).
Even with gasoline prices at the beginning of 2009 approximately $1.40 per gallon below last year's levels, consumers remain incredibly price sensitive, with 70% saying that price is the most important factor in deciding where to purchase gasoline, and more than half of all consumers (51%) reporting that they will drive 10 minutes out of their way to save as little as five cents per gallon.
Also, consumers sent mixed messages with respect to how much they understand the retail sale of gasoline. Consumers said that retailers make 40 cents per gallon profit-about 10 times what retailers actually make-yet when asked what they thought was a "fair" profit, they said 80 cents per gallon.
Consumers also grossly overestimated the percentage of fueling stations owned and operated by the major oil companies. With BP, ConocoPhillips and ExxonMobil all currently divesting their retail stations, less than 2% of all fueling stations remain operated by major oil companies, yet consumers thought that 63% of stations were owned by the major oil companies. The consumer confusion is likely because approximately 55% of retail gasoline facilities sell one of the top 20 brands of fuel.
Even though consumers believe that petroleum retailers make much more than they actually do, they do not blame retailers for high gasoline prices. When asked to identify from nine options which were the most significant factors in causing high gasoline prices, 61% cited "manipulation of prices by OPEC," 58% said "lack of government oversight" and 50% blamed "oil speculators." At the bottom of the list was "gas stations increasing profits," with only 26% citing this as a reason. Further, when asked what they thought was the No. 1 reason for rising prices, only 4% of consumers blamed gas stations.
There is good news in the results for retailers who seek to grow in-store sales by driving gasoline customers inside the store, said NACS. Nearly one in four consumers (24%) who purchased gasoline at a convenience store also bought coffee at the store in the past month, while 14% said that they bought a sandwich when they purchased fuel in the past month.
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