Is Coles Express Northmead Leading The Market in Increasing The Fuel Prices?

Lwantvsneed on 09/01/2020 - 09:31

Always the case for long enough time now, I notice Coles Express Northmead increases fuel prices 3 days before every other fuel stations. Then comes the followers nearby and later in a couple of days, other areas join. On one occasion, other areas didn't even increase the prices as per trend and Coles Exoress decreased their special prices in about a week. Coles Express Northmead then becomes last to decrease the prices for the cycle.

A few questions it raises are:

  1. How come Coles Express Northmead becomes 1st fuel station to increase the prices when other stations take 4-5 days more to do it.

  2. This station does not decrease the prices for few days when others have already.

  3. How come fuel price fluctuations in the cycle always have a sharp increase and decrease evertime.

  4. How come the trend of weekly fuel price bsse is gone where cheapest fuel prices used to be on Tuesday in every week.

  5. Is there any regulatory authority for e.g ACCC have anything to do with it.

Please share your experiences and inputs.

Thanks.

Automotive

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Comments

  • GG57 on 09/01/2020 - 09:42

    Good observations, but I assume that you don't buy fuel from there.

  • whooah1979 on 09/01/2020 - 09:42

    The answer is use FuelCheck and buy from a cheaper petrol station.

    • wantvsneed on 09/01/2020 - 09:49

      That is right but question is how is Coles Express becoming and allowed to be the market leader, trend/cycle setter? Prices set as per global fuel market and reguated by authorities must not behave in the manner it is doing at present.

      • HighAndDry on 09/01/2020 - 09:59

        What? Petrol is sold by private businesses. Other than collusion or other anti competitive behaviour (which everyone agreeing to follow the same prices would actually be), they're allowed to sell the petrol for whatever price they want.

  • theHMASfriendship on 09/01/2020 - 09:45
    +4

    Yes all other fuel stations in the country check with Coles Express Northmead before increasing their fuel price.

    I suggest we form a vigilante mob to take out Coles Express Northmead, and eliminate fuel price increases for good.

    • wantvsneed on 09/01/2020 - 09:51
      -2

      You are very smart!

    • outlander on 09/01/2020 - 10:17
      +1

      You had me at vigilante mob.

    • HighAndDry on 09/01/2020 - 11:01
      +1

      If we burn down ALL the petrol stations, no fuel can be sold and so we can eliminate fuel prices for good!

      • eug on 09/01/2020 - 12:17
        +2

        If we burn down ALL the petrol stations, no fuel can be sold and so we can eliminate fuel prices for good!

        No, that would eliminate fuel. The prices will still be there, the fuel would be on backorder. :)

      • theHMASfriendship on 09/01/2020 - 12:49

        I will follow you anywhere

    • AbsX on 13/01/2020 - 18:40

      If anything, having a known trend setter is a good thing.

      When prices there go up, you know the cycle has bottomed out and you can fill for the cheapest price before all other petrol stations follow suit

  • chumpychops on 09/01/2020 - 09:53

    Not in Northmead, but have noticed in eastern Melbourne, it is frequently the Coles Express/ Shell's that seem to increase to end the "cheap cycle" first. On the odd occasion, I've even seen them jump higher - Mobil/7Eleven and BP stay low - and then come back down again within a couple of days.
    Completely boycott them as a result

  • EmCKay on 09/01/2020 - 10:08

    Coles Express, Northmead is my local. I get my fuel there often because of the flybuys discount offers. 12 cents off the advertised price per litre beats the other servos around hands down. I will say that their pumps can be incredibly slow, though.

    • wantvsneed on 09/01/2020 - 10:13

      No one else offers 24 cents a litre except them Mk81 but if they drive the market and get the price 50cents higher and give you 24 cents by max, you are still loosing 26cents.

      • EmCKay on 09/01/2020 - 17:42

        As of right now, all servos in the Northmead area are the same price. Woolworths/Caltex was the one who lead the charge today.

        • wantvsneed on 09/01/2020 - 20:04

          It has been about 4-5 days now that Coles Express Northmead increased the prices so you can expect others around the area will follow. Although, other areas in Sydney are still selling for 128 cents mark!

          So, anyone filled around Northmead area would have paid 174 cents a litre whereas other areas still found it at 128 cents!

  • elgrande on 09/01/2020 - 10:11
    +1

    I can confirm that certain petrol sites are used to signal the desire to initiate a price restoration to competition sites.

    • wantvsneed on 09/01/2020 - 10:24

      There you go. Unhealthy competition. One leader and other followers.

      • elgrande on 09/01/2020 - 10:30

        Yes. And its important for the others to follow, otherwise the price restoration can fail, leading to low prices for an extra week or so. This can cost the fuel companies millions of dollars in lost margin.

        • wantvsneed on 09/01/2020 - 10:35

          The explained process is fine but not the prices driven to that level.

          • elgrande on 09/01/2020 - 11:09

            @wantvsneed: Just to clarify, when I said "important for the others to follow", I mean important to the fuel companies, not the consumer ;)

            Yes, the jumps are quite high, this is the time they make their margin.

            • wantvsneed on 09/01/2020 - 20:05

              @elgrande: In other words, Coles Express specially Northmead has got lot to do with making its margins!

              • elgrande on 09/01/2020 - 20:39

                @wantvsneed: The Northmead pricing index.

                Think of it as a good thing.. once you see Northmead cycle you know to fill up at another store before they go up..!

  • one man clan on 09/01/2020 - 10:24
    +1

    This is actually the desired behaviour in a regulated competitive market - as opposed to every local retailer changing their prices at the exact same time.

    • wantvsneed on 09/01/2020 - 10:29
      -1

      Every retailer changing its own price would be healthier I believe as it would be competitive as they will try to price beat each other. Not when 1 decides to go 50cents up and others follow the same.

      • HighAndDry on 09/01/2020 - 11:30
        +1

        This is "Every retailer changing its own price" - if I see the shop down the road selling the same thing I'm selling for a higher price and people willing to pay that higher price, acting absolutely independently, yeah I'll put up my prices too.

      • one man clan on 09/01/2020 - 11:30
        +1

        The scenario in your example is not anti-competitive. Different retailers follow pricing at different times, and sometimes not at all. This is competition and you are free to choose the cheaper retailer.

        To answer your question, the ACCC has information about fuel prices and their role: https://www.accc.gov.au/consumers/petrol-diesel-lpg/about-fu… and https://www.accc.gov.au/regulated-infrastructure/fuel/acccs-…

  • Meeb on 09/01/2020 - 10:33

    My local Coles Express has Unleaded at ~175c currently, whilst the Shell/Woolies one down the road is ~134c, go figure. That's why I pick Woolies.

    • stickyfingers on 09/01/2020 - 11:50

      Shell gets a lot of their business from fleet customers.

    • [Deactivated] on 09/01/2020 - 12:47

      Strathfield the same. Can't understand why constantly high, plenty of other servos around.

  • Snake 4 on 09/01/2020 - 12:18

    No story here. Move on to another servo. Plenty around your area and plenty of 7 elevens if that's you go.

    • wantvsneed on 09/01/2020 - 20:08

      Yeah, better leave Coles Express specially Northmead one and move on to other ones.

  • ihbh on 09/01/2020 - 12:29

    How come Coles Express Northmead becomes 1st fuel station to increase the prices

    Someone has to be the first.

    If they all do it at the same time, it's called collusion.

    • wantvsneed on 09/01/2020 - 13:36

      3 days before any other station! Wow. Someone has to win the race, with big margin. You wonder why!

  • Snake 4 on 09/01/2020 - 12:58

    There are approx 6,500 petrol stations in Australia. How do you know Shell at Northmead are ALWAYS first to raise prices?

    • wantvsneed on 09/01/2020 - 13:38

      You know, you got these fuel price check apps? And you go places, travel around 80kms every day and look at the prices at other stations?

  • xuqi on 09/01/2020 - 13:34

    ACCC quarterly reports on the Australian petroleum industry

    https://www.accc.gov.au/publications/quarterly-reports-on-th…

    https://www.accc.gov.au/system/files/1641RPT_Petrol%20Quarte…

    Fuel excise increased

    The Australian Government announced in the 2014–15 Budget that it would reintroduce biannual
    indexation, by the Consumer Price Index, of excise and excise-equivalent customs duty for all fuels
    except aviation fuels.7 Under these arrangements, which took effect from 10 November 2014, excise is
    generally increased on 1 February and 1 August each year.

    On 5 August 2019, excise on petrol and diesel increased by 0.2 cpl to 41.8 cpl. Excise on automotive
    LPG increased by 0.1 cpl to 13.7 cpl.

    • wantvsneed on 09/01/2020 - 14:33

      Considering this, this still does not answer questions raised.

      • xuqi on 09/01/2020 - 16:27

        The question has already been answered, as best as anyone without intimate knowledge of internal workings of these companies can.

        To obtain real info you'll need whistle-blowers, which isn't something easy to find in Australia, given we have no whistle-blower protection laws in this country.

        The link provides periodic trend info, from the agency tasked with monitoring the cartel.

  • Euphemistic on 10/01/2020 - 07:20
    +2

    Just vote with your wallet.

  • OzHunterNSW on 10/01/2020 - 10:19

    All Coles related fuel outlets up the price to counter the shopper docket discount…

    • wantvsneed on 10/01/2020 - 12:43

      Selling 50 cents higher for more than 5 days when a lot of others are not, Coles Express offers 4 cents on docket or 20 cents when you shop in store still is way way too much.

      ONE CAN SIMPLY GO TO A FUEL STATION SELLING PETROL FOR 128 CENTS AND SAVE 50 CENTS JUST BY NOT GOING TO COLES EXPRESS WHICH IS SELLING IT FOR 174 CENTS.

  • HeWhoKnows on 12/01/2020 - 20:17

    So has OP travelled all around Sydney or even Australia to establish this trend?

  • Kkuba on 14/01/2020 - 11:57

    1. Because the operators have crunched the numbers, and have clearly come up with a conclusion that the reduction in volume would be more than offset by the increase in profit margin.

    2. They have crunched the numbers and come up with a conclusion that the increase in volume would not offset the reduction in profit margin.

    Both one and two could be linked to location. e.g. Proximity of other stations, is it located at an off-ramp, so desperate people doing a pit-stop off the freeway will just settle for the higher price.

    1. 3My guess is that a sudden increase catches unobservant people out. I am surprised when speaking to people on this topic, that they don't even notice the jump, and will fill up at 175 when places are still selling at 136. "Oh, I don't look at the price, I just fill up" is what I hear. Then the gradual decrease to remain competitive, otherwise, a consistent 175 when all others are falling would stand out = a loss of customers.

    2. 4Whatever a company can do to maximise profit, it seems one brand figured this out, and all others have followed. If you have a weekly cycle, you will have most people filling up on the cheap day, as for most people, a tank will last at least a week. e.g. Max of 175, min of 135, pump price average would be 155, but if 80% of people fill up on the 135 day, the average sale per L might be 140 (not actual calculation, just a guess).

    If you have a 5-6 week cycle, you have fill ups spread more evenly across the 6 weeks because people cannot wait another 4 weeks for the bottom of the cycle, where your pump price average will still be 155, but your average per L spend will likely be more aligned to that (155).

    1. 5Not as far as I am aware.

    EDIT: Auto formatting is resetting the counter of my list, not sure how to prevent that, so I've had to put in an extra number.

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