He may not be happy about the price of gas that has been steadily creeping upward this past month, but customers like Mr Dolan, said Sugar Hill Service Center owners Rob and Charlie Merrifield, are not bringing their frustrations into the gas station.

“The last time was in 2008, when we saw a big leap [in gas prices],” said Charlie Merrifield. “It’s a little strange. There’s less talk about the gas prices this time; there’s a different feeling,” he said. “The price of gas doesn’t seem to be the lead story on the news,” and that, Charlie said, is puzzling to him.

When gas prices surged from the $2 mark to $3 per gallon, the Merrifields heard plenty of complaints. People were economizing, bargain hunting, and looking at alternatives to decrease gas usage. “This time, there’s no talk about electric cars, or the high prices, or even that the governor is considering increasing the tax on gasoline. There’s just no talk at all,” Charlie said.

The occasional customer will ask Rob to locate a car for him or her at auction, but there has not been a noticeable increase in requests for more economical vehicles. “People are still driving SUVs,” said Rob Merrifield. He suspects that once the price breaks $5 a gallon, people will begin to verbalize their frustrations. And, he added, he would not be surprised if that day came sooner than many believe it will. “Memorial Day is still over a month away, which is traditionally when you see prices rise,” Rob said. “I wonder where the price is going to go?

“Gas is one commodity that translates into everything we do,” Rob pointed out. “Fuel drives this country. We’ve built a world here where we depend on gas. But when gas goes up, it costs more for people to drive to work, it costs more for the baker to deliver the bread, for suppliers to bring produce to supermarkets. It trickles down to everyone,” he said.

That trickle does not fill the well of the gas station owners, though, said the Merrifields. “Retailers still only make 6 to 14 cents a gallon,” Charlie Merrifield said, and it is the popular credit cards that are “killing us. We still pay 2.3 to 2.6 percent of each sale, regardless of how much gas is per gallon.”

Mr Dolan, though, said Charlie, may be happy he filled up Wednesday evening when regular gas at the Sugar Hill station was “only” $3.97 per gallon. The Thursday morning delivery would bring that price to several pennies over $4 a gallon, he said. “And this is the last you’ll see of gas under $4 in Newtown,” he predicted.

“Gas is a loser for stations,” said Rob Merrifield, “and that’s frustrating. “Our other businesses, the auto bay and the convenience store, that’s where we make our money. A station can’t survive just selling gas today.”

Nick Kopcik, who is the owner of the Sunoco franchise on Route 25, and Glenn Springmeyer, manager of the Exit 10 Mobil station on Church Hill Road, are also incredulous that they are not hearing complaints about the high cost of gas.

“We used to be afraid to change the signs [when gas increased in price],” said Mr Springmeyer. “This time, people seem resigned to it. Now, people’s reactions are just ‘How much is it going up?’ They don’t believe why it’s going up, but they know that it is,” he said.

Mr Springmeyer believes that consumers are more educated today about the global nuances that cause gasoline price increases, so are not as quick to come in and verbally attack the retailer. “Now,” he said, “a ten-cent increase over a week’s time doesn’t faze people. They know it’s not us.”

The other change from the days when gasoline leaped from $2 to $3 a gallon, he said, is that then, “People changed their driving habits. I don’t see that happening this time around.” People got used to the price, and went back to their old driving habits of not combining trips, driving more and further, and are not seeking economical vehicles to drive, he observed. He has not seen a slowdown of out of state plates, so road trips seem to have remained a popular mode of travel, Mr Springmeyer said. “I don’t expect people to curtail their vacations. I still see as many motor homes, boats, and SUVs. We’ve become complacent with the price of gas,” he said.

The one thing that Mr Springmeyer has noticed, though, as gas prices rise, is that the station is not pumping as much gas as it did a year ago. “People are spreading out where they are buying gas,” he guessed.

People are traveling further for a better price on gas, said Nick Kopcik, and that affects his business. There is not a lot of station loyalty like there once was, said Mr Kopcik. Still, on April 13, with his regular gas selling at $4.09 a gallon, and premium gas selling at $4.35 a gallon, he was hearing “minimal complaining. My interaction with customers is somewhat limited, though,” he admitted, since most customers pay at the pump. “I’m not a convenience store, really, so I don’t see a lot of people come inside,” Mr Kopcik said. Plus, he said, the news has done a good job educating consumers as to where the price of gas comes from. “They realize that at this level, the profit is very small,” said Mr Kopcik.

Varying Prices

Prices at gas stations vary across the state due in some respect to “zoning,” which is the wholesale pricing of gasoline based on the station’s geographic location and how much that market will bear. (The practice is being contested by Connecticut General Assembly House Bill #5869, supported by State Representatives William Tong, Gerald Fox, Bob Duff, and Livvy Floren. That bill, to ban zoning, was referred to the joint committee on general law on March 1.)

Price is also based on whether the station is outright owned, Mr Kopcik said. A gas station owned by the operator is able to negotiate a better price. Taxes also account for nearly 64 cents on each gallon in Connecticut, he said, and the stock market and trading of future contracts also pushes the price of gasoline. How oil is bought and sold, and how that affects the price of gas is more complicated than most people care to learn about, and the retailer is caught in the middle of it all, said Mr Kopcik.

Like the Merrifields, Mr Kopcik said that his station counts on the auto body shop to support it, and takes a hit by accepting credit cards. “There’s not a lot of profit in gasoline anymore,” said Mr Kopcik, who recalled that when he first got into the business in the mid-1980s, a station owner could make nearly 25 percent profit on the sale of gasoline.

Heidi Goodhart commutes 625 miles a week to her job as corporate director of human resources of Dolce Hotels and Resorts in New Jersey, driving a Chrysler Sebring.

“The good thing for me,” said Ms Goodhart, “is that gas is actually cheaper in New Jersey.” On April 12, she paid $3.63 at a New Jersey pump, where state taxes on gasoline are less than in Connecticut, and a deal compared to the $4.09 in Newtown she would have paid. “I am very careful about making sure that my gas levels enable me to get back to Jersey,” she said, and if local driving makes that impossible, she buys just enough gas at a cheaper gas station in Danbury to get her to New Jersey. “I’ve become obsessed with the Gas Buddy app,” said Ms Goodhart, an application for smart phones that enables drivers to track the best gas prices.

As gas prices rise, Ms Goodhart said that she would love to work from home more often. “My employer is supportive of my working from home at least occasionally,” she said, “but I would like to come up with a proposal/agreement for a more regular work-from-home schedule.” She believes that it is possible for both employees and employers to benefit from identifying ways to create telecommuting opportunities and fostering a culture that accepts telecommuting.

The tradeoff with working from her home, though, is that she would miss engaging with her co-workers in an office environment, said Ms Goodhart. “However,” she said, “the pocketbook may have to win if gas prices continue to climb!”

Mike Iorfino’s commute also takes him to New Jersey, putting 700 miles on his car each week. Foreseeing that gas prices were not going to go down, approximately a year ago he purchased a 2011 Hyundai Sonata, based on its excellent reviews and gas mileage, he said. “The car is a four-cylinder, as opposed to my previous Sonata, which was a six-cylinder,” Mr Iorfino said. That switch has decreased his gas consumption by nearly ten miles per gallon, no small matter in these days of $4 gasoline.

“I love my job,” said Mr Iorfino, who has worked for UPS for 25 years, and that is one of several reasons he does not plan to make any drastic changes, no matter what the price of gasoline becomes. “I can’t carpool, “he said, “as there are no others near me in Newtown,” and at this point, there is no public transportation from the Newtown area to Ramsey, N.J., where he works. UPS has started a beta study to have employees work from home, Mr Iorfino said, but he is not part of it.

Like Ms Goodhart, he takes advantage of the lower price of gasoline in New Jersey to fill up. The price there, he said, is almost 40 cents less than that in Newtown.

It is the oil companies that are making a profit these days, claimed Mr Kopcik, and because people realize that, it may have something to do with why the fuming takes place quietly at the gas pump, and is not vented to the retailer.

He does find it interesting that when gasoline jumped to $3 a gallon, not only did customers rail loudly against it, but that drivers also made an effort to change their driving habits and find more economical means of getting around. “Now, a lot of people won’t do with less,” he said. “Americans will talk and then not do anything. There is a feeling,” Mr Kopcik said, “that no matter who they talk to, the price isn’t going to change. So they just pay it.”

The world keeps going around, and Americans will keep driving, no matter what, said these four service station operators. Rob Merrifield has 5-month-old twins. “We’ll see,” he mused, “what gas prices are like when they start to drive.”