Gas War
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HISTORY OF THIS PAGE: 2010 - Gas is still $2-$3 and I'm still using Murphy's. I originally set this up in 2004, when prices were hovering under $2. The letter below originated in 2002. For the latest (as of today), check out my RV Blog article "Is the Gas War Working?".

And here's what I wrote in 2004:

A while back, I put a survey on my home page asking what your reactions might be if gas hits $3 this summer. I didn't get many responses, but the majority of those who did said they'd be mad. Well, that's certainly my feeling and I've been wishing there was something I/we could do about it. In one of my newsletters, I suggested that we, as RV owners, might have some impact if we parked the RVs and didn't buy any gas for a week sometime in August. That's probably difficult to accomplish and too short-lived to be noticed, but the letter below contains an idea that I think might be worth trying. Check it out and see what you think.

Then, add one more idea to it -- I think boycotting Exxon and Mobil is a great idea, but we don't really know if they own many of the other brands or not. One brand I'm fairly sure they don't own, and usually the cheapest around, is Murphy at Walmart. Most Murphy Stations that I've been to are very cramped for a large RV, but I've figured out how to enter and exit with little problem. I'm going to try to start buying all my gas from Murphy's immediately! Suggest you do the same. Comments? Email rjhoffman@yahoo.com. By the way, Walmart doesn't own Murphy, they're independent and just happen to locate at Walmarts.

March 2004 Add-on : Get a Walmart Credit Card or one of their Reloadable Shopping Cards and you'll get 3 cents per gallon discount on the already very low price! That's only $3 on 100 gallons, but every little bit helps.

The letter follows below ...
Read on....Subject: GAS WAR!

Join the resistance!!!!

I hear we are going to hit close to $3.00 a gallon by the summer.  Want gasoline prices to come down?  We need to take some intelligent, united action. Phillip Hollsworth offered this good idea:  This makes MUCH MORE SENSE than the "don't buy gas on a certain day" campaign that was going around last April or May!  The oil companies just laughed at that because they knew we wouldn't continue to "hurt" ourselves by refusing to buy gas. It was more of an inconvenience to us than it was a problem for them.  BUT,
whoever thought of this idea, has come up with a plan that can really work. Please read it and join with us!

By now you're probably thinking gasoline priced at about $1.50 is super cheap.  Me too!  It is currently $1.97 for regular unleaded in my town. Now that the oil companies and the OPEC nations have conditioned us to think that the cost of a gallon of gas is CHEAP at $1.50 - $1.75, we need to take aggressive action to teach them that BUYERS control the marketplace....not sellers.  With the price of gasoline going up more each day, we consumers need to take action.   The only way we are going to see the price of gas come down is
if we hit someone in the pocketbook by not purchasing their gas!  And we can do that WITHOUT hurting ourselves.  How?  Since we all rely on our cars, we can't just stop buying gas.  But, we CAN have an impact on gas prices if we all act together to force a price war.

Here's the idea:   For the rest of this year, DON'T purchase ANY gasoline from the two biggest companies (which now are one), EXXON and MOBIL.  If they are not selling any gas, they will be inclined to reduce their prices.  If they reduce their prices, the other companies will have to follow suit.  But to have
an impact, we need to reach literally millions of Exxon and Mobil gas buyers.

It's really simple to do!!   Now, don't whimp out on me at this point...keep reading and I'll explain how simple it is to reach millions of people!! I'm sending this note to about thirty people. If each of you send it to at
least ten more (30 x 10 = 300) ... and those 300 send it to at least ten more (300 x 10 = 3,000)...and so on, by the time the message reaches the sixth generation of people, we will have reached over THREE MILLION consumers!  If those three million get excited and pass this on to ten friends each, then 30 million people will have been contacted!  If it goes one level further, you guessed it- THREE HUNDRED MILLION PEOPLE!!!

Again, all You have to do is send this to 10 people.  That's all!

How long would all that take?  If each of us sends this email out to ten more people within one day of receipt, all 300 MILLION people could conceivably be contacted within the next 8 days!!!   I'll bet you didn't think you and I had that much potential, did you!  Acting together we can make a difference.

If this makes sense to you, please pass this message on.  PLEASE HOLD OUT UNTIL THEY LOWER THEIR PRICES TO THE $1.30 RANGE AND KEEP THEM DOWN.  THIS CAN REALLY WORK!
Post Script: I just found a copy of this letter on www.runlevelzero.net dated April 2002. So it didn't work then, why should it work now? I dunno, but I still think it's worth another try! I, for one, am going to buy at Murphy Stations at Walmart until I see a comparable price somewhere else!
For today's fuel prices anywhere in USA and Canada, check out my Fuel Prices page!
To find Murphy Gas Stations around the country, check out the Murphy Locator!