“This has been a longtime problem on the South Fork,” Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. said in reference to a universal truth about Long Island: that gas prices generally get higher the farther east you go.
“In essence, big oil companies engage in a price-gouging scheme called zone pricing,” he said, “by charging prices that are based on geography totally unrelated to actual cost. In short, big oil charges more on the South Fork because they believe ‘the Hamptons’ can afford it.”
In fact, the change in gas prices between UpIsland and the South Fork can be startling, and the change from just Southampton to Montauk even more so.
The Star collected prices from a random selection of stations during the week ending Aug. 25 from as far east as Montauk and as far west as Brentwood.
Eight gas stations across Patchogue, Medford, Port Jefferson, and Brentwood had an average price of $3.16 per gallon for regular gas that week. These stations were all near main thoroughfares. The cheapest was a Mobil station in Brentwood at $3.09 and the most expensive in that area was also in Brentwood, $3.29 at a Speedway.
Compare that to the range of prices at 17 stations from Southampton to Montauk (many of them on Route 27), where the average was about $4.38 per gallon. This did not include every station, and some have different prices for cash versus credit or debit card payments, or different prices for self-service versus full service. Prices listed that were collected were for self-service and card payments, where those options existed.
Of the South Fork stations surveyed that week, the cheapest — $3.45 a gallon — was at a Shell station on Route 27 in Southampton, at the intersection of Greenfield Road. The two that tied for most expensive were the Gulf and Empire stations on North Main Street in East Hampton, where the price of regular (not self-service) was $4.83 a gallon. Only one cent behind them was the easternmost gas station on Long Island, Montauk Fuels, at $4.82 per gallon for regular.
Between the two ends of the spectrum, on the low end, the price per gallon was $3.51 at Cumberland Farms in Southampton, $3.75 at Speedway in Water Mill, $3.95 at BP in Southampton, and $3.99 at the Gulf station in Bridgehampton. It topped $4 at all the other stations surveyed: with the cheapest of the rest coming in at $4.19 at the Mobil in downtown Amagansett and $4.29 at the Amagansett Gulf station. A gallon of regular cost $4.61 at Sam’s Auto Service on Three Mile Harbor Road in East Hampton; $4.69 at the Exxon and Gulf stations in Sag Harbor, the Shell in Amagansett, and the Exxon on Woods Lane in East Hampton; $4.75 at the Gulf in Montauk and $4.78 at the Montauk Mobile station.
When it comes to the pricing itself, the reasons for the discrepancies differ from station to station and from brand to brand.
Sebastian Gorgone, the owner of Sam’s Auto Service in East Hampton, offered some perspective as to why. “In
East Hampton if you weren’t self-service in the early ‘80s you could never have a self-service station,” he said. “I have to pay someone to be here to pump gas every day; that’s one thing that will jack you up here.” Additionally Mr. Gorgone said the branding of a gas station can also have an effect. “Once you’re branded they’re going to dictate how much the vendor will pay for gas,” he said. Sam’s is an unbranded station and Mr. Gorgone noted that being unbranded has allowed him to “give a better price and quality product to people.”
Assemblyman Thiele has offered a solution to these wide differences in the form of a bill originally introduced in 2011, that “has passed the State Assembly at least a dozen times during my tenure, but never passed in the State Senate.” The bill has broad support among gasoline retailers but is opposed by the big oil companies, he said. “The current system is nothing more than price fixing and anti-competitive. My bill would give the [attorney general] the authority to get an injunction against zone pricing.”
The media teams at ExxonMobil, Shell, and Gulf did not respond to requests for comment.
With Reporting by Christine Sampson