In fact, prices as low as 87 cents per gallon were reported in the city of Aiken, S.C. "I'll take it," a woman pumping gas at the station told WJBF TV News. "I'll come back with my truck and fill it up."
Business has been like this since Christmas Eve, when three gas stations in the area began competing [image-nocss] to offer the lowest gasoline prices, according to Joyce Howard, supervisor of Pine Log Road Exxon.
"At first it started as fun for our customers," she told the news station, "and then it just went on down and down and down."
The price war was sparked by a new Sprint gas station, which opened with low prices to draw customers to the new location. And the neighboring stores followed suit "to compete with our competitors," said Howard. "We don't want to lose our regular, valuable customers and the point of drawing new ones."
Elsewhere, the prices aren't quite as low, but consumers are finding the lower gas pricesnational average $1.61 as of yesterday, according to GasBuddy.comcomforting.
"I have been visiting the gas station a lot more often now," consumer Teresa Kellogg told WCIA TV in Champaign, Ill., where gas prices were about $1.50 per gallon this week. "Since prices went down, we have been driving more."
Gas prices hit a five-year low this week, according to the report, and gas-station manager Anise Patel is banking on the falling prices to beef up his bottom line.
"There is no money in gas," he said, "so our business is inside, whatever we sell inside that's where our money is."
And when people pay less for their gas outside, that means more money for goodies inside. That's something most stations haven't seen for a while.
"We lost a lot of money because nobody's buying anything," said Patel. "A lot of businesses went under."
"I used to go in when gas was high and just get Polar pop," said Kellogg. "Now I can go and get a candy bar, a couple drinks, a bag of chips."
And in the Twin Cities, motorists are filling up their six-cylinder vehicles again.
The price of a gallon of gasoline around the Twin Cities dropped below $1.50 Friday, almost half of what it cost one year ago, according to the Pioneer Press.
A few months ago, motorist Dave Nelson of St. Paul, opted to park his Chevrolet Tahoe because of high gas prices. At one point, it cost as much as $100 to fill up the big sport utility vehicle, so he used his fianc ae's smaller and more fuel-efficient car to get to work.
After gas prices dipped below $2 a gallon, he began driving the Tahoe more regularly again, Nelson said Friday while filling up at a Marathon gas station.
The lower gasoline prices follow a dramatic drop in crude-oil prices. But Twin Cities drivers apparently are treating the often-changing prices with caution. Many appear to be reluctant to give up the money-saving measures they took on months ago, noted Dawn Duffy, a spokeswoman for AAA Minneapolis. Gas consumption has been down since high summer prices hit.
"Normally, when gas prices go up, we do change our habits. But the thing that's different now, gas prices are going downbut the rest of the economy is in terrible straits," Duffy told the newspaper. "Quite honestly, it seems like gas prices are the only thing in our back pocket. I don't see us taking advantage of that."
Twin Cities resident Randall Jones said he's "still conserving." He's been considering buying a new car, and gas mileage is a major concern.
"I think that we should conserve," Jones said, noting that the economy has played a role in his decision to scale back on driving. "When gas prices were high, I just stopped driving everywhere."
But the free-fall of gas prices may not be over.
"We think that prices could fall another 10-15 cents a gallon," AAA's John Townsend told WTOP News in Washington, D.C.
Gas prices averaged $1.63 a gallon in the D.C. Metro region this week, the lowest since 2004. The bottom lineAmericans drove a half trillion miles less in 2008.
"We have the lowest demand for oil in 25 years," Townsend said.
But OPEC's decision to cut production may reverse that trend. About eight months after the last cut took place, prices began to soar.
"It took about eight months for it to work its way through the system. And when it did, we got higher and higher gasoline prices, and it didn't end until July."
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