Houston Gas War Drives Price To $1.87 A Gallon

HOUSTON, TX — Gasoline prices are down around the nation, and the average price at the pump for regular is around $2.24 this week. But two gas stations here are taking the prices even lower: How does $1.87 a gallon sound to you?

A stretch of Wayside Drive at Interstate 45 South is the theater of this war, and the soldiers at an Exxon Mobil station and a Murphy Express store are not ready to end the battle they began a few months ago, when stations began selling gas for $2.01 a gallon; at the time, the average price in Houston was $2.18 a gallon.

This week, the skirmish heated up when the stations changed the digits on their signs and pumps to read $1.87 for regular, a full 17 cents cheaper than the current average price per gallon in Houston.

“It just went down!” Caroline Sherman, who lives on Houston’s east side, told the Houston Chronicle. “I drove across town to get in.”

James Bowers, who lives in the Braeswood area, said he stops at the Wayside battlefield often. Bowers is a sales professional, and an SUV is his office, an SUV that gets around 17 miles to the gallon, so the low prices help his bottom line.

“I knew it was going to be cheaper than anywhere else,” Bowers said on Wednesday.

Want to get some gas for $1.87 a gallon? Better get in line, because the pumps on Wayside Drive are busy, and there's no telling how low they'll go.

» See the story in the Houston Chronicle

— Image: Wikimedia Commons/Anthony Inswasty