Just 24 hours after a family-run filling station made the headlines for selling the cheapest fuel for miles around, they've dropped their prices even further.
Drivers from "all over" have been flocking to Bailey's Garage in Brecon Road in Abergavenny ever since it started selling petrol for just 169p per litre. But on Friday morning, the garage posted a "price drop alert" on it's Facebook page and said petrol was now at 167.9p.
It means it's now a whopping 20p cheaper for unleaded at Bailey's Garage than the supermarkets and even owner Ian Bailey is left scratching his head as to why no one else has dropped their prices. According to the RAC, the average price for unleaded across the UK is 187.19p a litre.
Ian explained how he buys fuel everyday on a system which sets the cost of petrol and diesel based on the fluctuating prices of crude oil. As an independent business, he can then decide how much of a mark-up he puts on the price at the pump. It seems only fair that he shouldn't profiteer from the falling cost of fuel he said matter-of-factly and seemingly perplexed by the interest in his garage all of a sudden.
"I'm wondering as well why other people haven't dropped their prices," he said. "I can't see why we're so cheap. We've always been cheap. I could put it up to be the same as other garages and we would be laughing. But times are hard and we like to pass on the drop to the customer."
He gets two tankers in every day at the moment and is four times busier than he's ever been before in the 50 years he's had the garage. Ian explained he's been selling petrol around the 169p per litre mark for two weeks now. He said supermarkets buy their fuel at least three weeks ahead so the fuel they're currently selling is based on the price they bought it at three weeks ago.
The lag time between buying and selling fuel for garages works in reverse too - Ian said there have been times where his prices have been higher than the supermarkets. And tomorrow, "it could go up". Three weeks ago, the price went up overnight by 10p. He had to explain to customers why then he was more expensive than the local supermarkets and even asked his supplier about the disparity: "They told me to give it a few weeks and they [the supermarkets] would catch up," Ian said.
"Because we are independent we can act independently to fuel pricing," Ian explained. "Usually everybody is at around the same price although the supermarkets offer their 5p per litre off to entice people in."
Ian doesn't know how much he's making from each litre at the pump off the top of his head, but it's minimal, he added. "We just try to be as competitive as we can with other garages," he said. "Sometimes what we make is very very low. If crude prices have dropped, it's very hard."
He wants people to understand that garages are rarely profiteering from fuel prices, but are often reacting to daily fluctuations in costs. For now however, he's between a rock and a hard place: "People are complaining because cars are blocking the road when they're queuing, but if we put our prices up, they come in complaining about the cost," he said.
"I'd like to keep it cheap all the time because it makes it so much busier."
Fuel prices remain high on peoples' radar and continue to bite amid the cost of living crisis. Motorists plan to stage further fuel price protests on Friday with disruption expected in Cardiff as well as on the M4 and key roads around southwest England. Avon and Somerset Police warned motorists that “slow-moving roadblocks” are planned on parts of the M4, M5, M32, and A38.
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