Minnesota is weird in many ways. We have chain stores, but none of the chains here are national. Grocery stores, for example. We have Cub Foods and, until recently, Rainbow Foods. They are big, but they're only regional. There are no Albertson's or Kroger's around here.
Same thing with gas stations. When I was helping out a Twins game once I was tasked to fill up a car with gas at a Shell station because he had a Shell card. It took me two hours before I found one, and that ordeal ended when I realized that there was a Shell station relatively close by my house. Moreover there are no longer any Phillips 66s, or Conocos, or Mobils. (There are a lot of British Petroleum stations here, though.) What we have instead are two regional mega-chains that I'm sure are nowhere else in the country: Holiday and SuperAmerica. Those two chains alone probably comprise 70-80% of the gas stations in the state.
Several months ago SA, which I patronize because they have double-discount coupon Tuesdays, bought this independent station within walking distance to my house. It is also three or four blocks away from the SuperAmerica I usually get my gas from.
I am typing this at My Favorite Late-Night Italian Place. I'm here just after stopping at the old SA in order to fill up my tank and dump garbage into their garbage cans. With reward card discount and coupon, I paid $2.71 per gallon of gas. But when I drove past the new SuperAmerica on my way to eat, I see that the sign on this sign, with discount and coupon, $2.79. How in the hell can two stations from the same brand just four blocks apart have prices for gasoline eight cents apart? Do the managers talk to each other every day? Do they even step outside their stations to look at the price at the other's?
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