Just been up to Stafford today to move my son down from university and paid 113.9 per litre in a local petrol station.

The local ASDA was the same price.

119.9 is the cheapest I can find it locally.

Why the marked difference between them & us?

Is it something to do with the transport of the stuff or just a measure of the local cost of living?

Whatever it is we are loosing out.

Followed the petrol tanker from Sainsburys Newbury to Sainsburys Calcot. Newbury is far dearer than Calcot yet from the same tanker. Beer is far cheaper in the Midlands than Newbury yet it is brewed in Reading.

Makes no sense does it...

It's clear we are being ripped off. Boycott them. I buy my gas when I drive to Reading or elsewhere.

On 30 May it was 115.9 at Morrisons in Warminster.


Or LOSING out, to use correct English.

Remarkable (Unleaded) uniformity in Newbury; Wantage Sainsbury's is often cheaper than Newbury, despite Wantage having little competition.

Chieveley Motor Company Thatcham 5.46 miles 119.9p 08-06-2010
Shell Newbury Newbury 5.88 miles 119.9p 07-06-2010

Sainsburys Newbury Newbury 6.76 miles 119.9p 08-06-2010
Tesco Newbury Extra Newbury 7.79 miles 119.9p 08-06-2010

Falkland Service Station Newbury 7.81 miles 119.9p 08-06-2010
Sainsburys Wantage Wantage 8.84 miles 119.9p 08-06-2010

Bp Georgetown Didcot 9.73 miles 119.9p 08-06-2010
Shell Georgetown Didcot 9.98 miles 119.9p 07-06-2010

Berkshire Downs Filling Station Didcot 5.53 miles 120.9p 08-06-2010
Bellingers Service Station Wantage 9.69 miles 120.9p

Sainsburys Oxford £1.179
Asda Fareham & Eastleigh (Near Fawley refinery) £1.139

However (and I accept that it doesn't cover all of the difference), the tanker has to travel further from the refinery. AIUI, Sainsbury's petrol comes from Essex, not Fawley.

One of the reasons that motorway fuel is so expensive is that to deliver it to a motorway service area (MSA) involves not only sending the tanker and driver along the motorway to the MSA, but also onto at least the next junction to get back.

The main brewery in Reading (Courage/Fosters) closed months ago. The majority of beer is brewed in the Midlands - Burton and Northampton.

I think that it's a bit laughable that £1.13 is considered the cheap option!

Cripes & I thought it was the petrol companies exploiting their captive market!

Swindon is always cheaper, has been 113.9p for a fortnight in Asda, I pressumed that it was due to the refinery location (Bristol???) but also the competition too.

Here we go again ANOTHER grammar / spelling correcter!

I didn't say it was cheap just noted the price difference.

£113.9 is still not cheap.

Will be even more when the next duty rise and VAT increase is added.

corrector

I KNEW someone would take the bait!

Never mind. I don't think we have a big problem. This from another forum:

It is more a correction of usage than grammar or spelling. Lose and loose have different meanings, as you will find out if you consult a dictionary.

It is a spelling error (this can be proven by the fact you knew what word should have been used) and I think picking people up on them is one of the most tedious things people can do, on a voluntary Internet forum. Not to mention arrogant and rude.

Morrisons in Reading, today was £113.9

If people don't spell properly and use good grammar once or twice I don't care. If it becomes a regular thing I take the poster much less seriously.

Agreade!

If all grammatical errors were picked up on then it would become VERY tedious.
(Usually typos rather than a show of ignorance.)

Back to the subject - a big difference in fuel price even 18 miles apart.

I wonder why this is - perhaps we need more competition in Newbury?

6p a litre difference might not seem much but it soon adds up.

Americans pay roughly 50p per litre. And then they have the temerity to go and wreck BP's share price which affects all our pension funds, conveniently ignoring the fact it was an oil rig belonging to an American company staffed by Americans that blew up in the first place. I think Halliburton was in there somewhere, too.

I think we all also, have to appreciate the fact that maybe not all forum members are British born and bred?

That'll help in finding the best local petrol prices

It is a rouse to let American companies get their hands on BP's US oil & gas reserves.

There is a lot more going on than mere oil in the ocean.

Hear, hear.

That's your prerogative, for me, I'd rather listen to the message than worry that someone might have made a typing error, or simply can't spell. As has already been suggested, there might be people who are not English. There could also be people who have learning difficulties.

A Headmaster of mine was once talking to our assembly. He described how he had received a letter that was poorly written and was hard to understand. At some point after, he got to meet this person and discovered that the person who wrote the letter was blind. Our Headmaster described how disappointed he was with himself that he didn't initially give this person the benefit of the doubt.

At the end of the day we all have different abilities and we should be more considerate of one another if we are to consider ourselves civilised.

Fair enough, correct someone out of courtesy, but there is no need for rudeness. I find life can be unforgiving to the pompous.

Without prolonging this too much, someone who learnt English as a foreign language is far less likely to make the sort of errors we have been talking about, so that's not a real argument.

So you will anyway!

Anyway, I think your argument is merely supposition, which I believe invalidates your claim that my argument is not 'real' - whatever that means in English.

I still believe, however, an open Internet forum is not a place for grammar snobbery. I also have no doubt that there would be scholars in the art of 'correct' English usage, that could pick holes in anyone that posts here.

I fully agree with you.

See the quote in my post #14 for a prime example of this

That is a particularly good example!

Thought I would raise this one again as it still seems to be an issue locally.

Had cause to travel to Somerset today and...........

Unleaded Tesco Weston-Super-Mare.......£130.9 per litre

Unleaded Tesco Newbury.......................£135.9 per litre!

Newburians are being scammed once again!!

Isn't it about time they ditched the stupid .9 pricing and indeed pricing in pennies (even though Biker1 seems to have found the most expensive petrol in the world ) ?

It fools no one into thinking they are getting a bargain, besides, I have never seen a price set at .2 or .6 or whatever, it's always .9.

Petrol companies, why not be honest and just say it's £1.31 or £1.36 a litre to quote the intended pricing above.

Ooops yes , sorry - well you all know what I mean!
I forgot you need 2 decimal points to quote petrol prices.

You don't have to go as far as Somerset. It was 5p a litre cheaper in Swindon than in Newbury.

No you don't.

Only if you use pounds sterling as units!

130p = £1.30

You still can't have two decimal points!

You can,

but it may be wrong to do so!

I think you are talking about decimal places, not decimal points.

Fuel prices vary hugely for no reason that I can see. In Reading/Theale, Petrol from a big supermarket chain or Shell near J13 of the M4 is something like £1.369, I saw in Kent diesel for £1.329!!!! However in Newbury is is often hovering just above the £1.40 mark!

I agree about removing the ".9", however you can guarantee it will be rounded up so £1.399 will be £1.40. However I'd be interested in what would happen if you put exactly 1 litre of fuel into your car. Would you be expected to give them nine-tenths of a penny or would it be "rounded up" anyway......

£1.30.9per litre
How many is that??
(Or was Grumbling Again wrong to correct me and I was right all along?)
(Or should it be 130.9p per litre?)

As the unit is pounds sterling, it would be: £1.309
In pence it would be: 130.9p

Got it!

Cheers.

(I did get my "O" Level maths!! )

I think it just lapsed!

I didn't!

Join the club. I don't even think I could do it today - it looks even harder!

Harder today? You must be joking!

Well, I did Pure Maths and Applied Maths (separate subjects) at A level many years ago, and I still had problems with a few of these. I haven't a clue what the difference between mode and median is, for example.

Not saying it's easier or harder - just different. How did you get on?

I believe mode means most frequently occurring and median means the middle value if all values were lined up in order.

b £5
c £7.5

Thanks. I really should look it up. Believe it or not, statistics wasn't in the syllabus when I took maths. And don't get me started about matrices, which it seems every primary school kid knows about these days. (Well maybe I exaggerate a bit...)

Aw come on, Andy, that's letting the side down! Mode is a very small ladies dress shop and Median is a TV station for people with dyslexia.