Fólk er Fífl

It is never a surprise to see the oil companies trying to make even more money than usual by taking advantage of every single situation they can.   It sucks that they all do it but they are private companies and there is nothing stopping them from charging what they want for fuel. 

 However it is surprising that after all the three big companies have done here in Iceland, people continue to buy fuel from any of them.  It is difficult for people out in the country to buy from another company, but in Reykjavík and the larger towns there is no reason for anyone to keep buying fuel from the big three as they continue to screw the people every way they can. 

 If everyone tomorrow stopped buying fuel from only one of the three big companies for the rest of the month you would see the price drop.  One company deprived of it's earning will have no choice but to lower the price and then the rest will have to follow suit to stay competitive.  But we actually help them. Most of us seem to be content with the high price and  continue spread the wealth around as all the fuel stations are always busy selling their overpriced merchandise and so there is really no competition.

I know how the system works because the oil companies use the same system that the industry I worked for in the US used for milk prices.  No one could tell us how high the price of milk could go so we would raise it and then see what the competition did.  Usually they would follow. Sometimes they raised the price and we would follow.  This movement was hardly ever based on the cost of milk but on what people would pay for it.  We would only lower the price when the competition did or when the sales started to decline, meaning the customer had reached the point that they would no longer pay the higher price for milk and would go elsewhere.

The problem in Iceland is that no one seems to be going elsewhere.  People can't even go to the discount fuel stations. (Yes I know they are owned by the big three, except the company I use, Atlantsolia, but it would be better than paying the full price.)  They have continued to overpay at the same companies that they always complain about. When people are complacent about something, it never changes. So I guess the marketing director or Olís was right after all.

GTB

Skeljungur lækkar bensín