>Maybe that's true where you are but it sure isn't true around here. The handful of gasoline brands -- I believe this is properly called an oligopoly -- frequently have stations on different corners of major intersections. Invariably the pump prices are identical. Now tell me they are not colluding.

Remember last year's price hike? There was an independent station owner somewhere in the wider area here, who just flatly refused to raise the prices as his suppliers demanded. He stated his reasons as "don't want to be part of this scam, my customers are my neighbors, I don't want to rip them".

They told him he must raise the prices, or he'll get blacklisted and won't be able to buy gas for his station anywhere. He posted some kind of apology at the hose.