Aug
24
Why we report gas prices where we do
Filed Under Sunrise on KGMB9
Pat McLain of Kona wondered why gasoline price reports always mention the same three places — Honolulu, Hilo and Wailuku — and hardly ever Kona, despite a big price difference between Hilo and Kona most of the time.
The most reliable data on gasoline prices comes from a research company in suburban Washington, D.C., that samples thousands of gas stations every single day, including weekends, automatically harvesting figures from the last credit card receipts of the evening at participating gas-and-go stations. The information covers self-serve regular, midprice, premium and diesel, and it is compared to the day before, a month ago and a year ago. The information also includes the date and amount of the all-time high price in each of these categories. This data is purchased by AAA and posted on its website every morning, and due to the time difference from Washington, D.C., to Honolulu it is fresh for all the TV morning shows.
It is a wealth of information. But it is only done in selected cities, and in Hawaii it is only done in Honolulu, Hilo and Wailuku.
In order to also mention Kona, Kauai, Hana, Molokai or Lanai, we have to use unscientific information such as viewer reports. We also check http://www.honolulugasprices.com and http://www.hawaiigasprices.com, which rely on consumer reports. For this information to be even somewhat useful, we program the site to exclude reports only than 36 hours. But from time to time I do add some information from these sources, knowing that smart consumers in, say, Kona, can extrapolate if they know what the Kailua Costco is charging.
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