Going Off on Gassing Up (Rant of the Week)

Why do gas stations bother to put the price per litre on their signs at all?

I mean let's be honest folks: Gasoline is, for better or worse (hint: it's for worse), the most inelastic of goods - we will buy it until we literally cannot afford to put another drop in our gas tank without losing our homes. Otherwise we would have to walk or bike or something.

So then why even bother with the price display at all? Why even put on a charade and make it appear as though gas prices are somehow governed by market forces or competition or really anything other than absolute oligarchy with a dash of outright dependency?

I hereby suggest a revolution in gas signs. I propose that stations should make better use of the space. Ladies and gentlemen of the blogosphere, I pray that one day soon, stations will begin to display the current temperature instead of the current temper-inducing-price-per-litre.

At least then, during our frigid Ottawa winters, these signs will actually display something that will help us decide whether to stop and fill up, or not, rather than just making us even more depressed about the orange light glowing in the corner of the dash, reminding us we don't have a choice.

Then, instead of using the other sign space to spell out something unbelievably obvious like "WE SELL CIGARETTES" (which is mildly better that "WE SELL GAS" but only slightly less patronizing than "WE DON'T CARRY FOOD WITH ANY NUTRITIONAL VALUE"), they could instead address the lack of pricing information with a dose of refreshing corporate honesty: