Expose exploitation
I refer to your front page article on Friday 28/10/16 by Liz Langdale titled 'Petrol Record'.
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Yes, Port Macquarie unleaded petrol prices jumped by 10 cents per litre from 121 cents per litre to 131 cents per litre about 6 weeks ago.
Rebecca Page, the NRMA spokesperson quoted in your article, claims that it is all just a matter of supply and demand, and service stations in Port Macquarie are different to other places like Coffs Harbour which are on the highway and therefore have a higher market for petrol and can offer cheaper prices.
With that rationale, you would therefore expect off-highway locations to have higher petrol pricing than highway locations, and smaller off-highway locations would have higher prices than larger off-highway locations.
In reality, this is definitely not what is happening.
I was in South West Rocks 2 weeks ago and the unleaded petrol price at their service stations was around 121 cents per litre compared to Port Macquarie's price of 131 cents per litre. Even the price at Crescent Head was about 123 cents per litre.
I was in South West Rocks again yesterday (Sunday), and purchased petrol from their Shell service Station at 125 cents per litre. How does the NRMA spokesperson reconcile that differential in prices at off-highway locations just like Port Macquarie?
The simple answer is that the Port Macquarie motorist is being seriously screwed by both Coles and Woolworths. They are charging what the market will stand, and the NRMA should be doing more to expose this exploitation by the major retailers.
Port News would do us all a favour by soliciting a response to this exploitation from both Coles and Woolworths. Lets see how they sanitise the above pricing anomolies.
Colin Eldridge
Port Macquarie
NRMA inaccurate
I was quite surprised that the NRMA was so inaccurate with their service station information for Port Macquarie and that the Port News published it on the front page without checking its accuracy.
In the nearly 30 years I have lived here, the population has doubled, as has the visitor numbers, but the number of service stations has halved so any claim of low volume is erroneous.
To correct Ms Page's information there are two independants, one BP, one Coles Express Shell, one Caltex Woolworths plus three other Caltex that are NOT affiliated with Woolworths.
John Bishop
Port Macquarie
Tell the real story
Congratulations for your front page article on high petrol prices in Port Macquarie. I just wonder why it took so long for you to make a fuss.
However you give Coles and Woolworths more publicity by mentioning them by name. Why not mention the names of the cheaper outlets. Is there some reason for this?
On the Channel 7 Prime TV news they did the same thing. Names and pictures of the high priced outlets but nothing about the cheaper outlets. You advertise one but not all. Why is this considered fair?
The TV report mentioned checking prices on the online comparison site but who is going to go to Ballina for cheap fuel if they are stay at homes? How does this help anyone?
They also talked of prices going up and down on different days of the week. Oh yes? Maybe in Sydney but never here.
I commend you on your efforts but do you really think that this article will change anything? What is to be your follow up?
What I would really like to know is who sets the local prices and who tells all the outlets how much to charge and when to do it? Miraculously it seems to happen all at the same time.
How is it that the brave Independent in Port can set lower prices when the giants of industry won't?
How much pressure has been brought to bear on the brave ones for not doing what they are told to do? How long can they hold out against the likes of Coles and Woolworths?
Why can't you or won't you name the cheap outlet when you happily name the rip off merchants?
Brian Barry
Port Macquarie