TV6 Investigates, Part II: Gas station ownership changes impact drivers while paying at the pump

MARQUETTE, Mich. (WLUC) - TV6 continues to investigate the gas station industry’s footprint on Upper Michigan.

In the first half of our investigation , we told you about the current landscape of gas stations across the U.P., what competition between new stations and old are bringing to local economies and what could come next.

Now, TV6 takes the investigation to the drivers.

We spoke with an Upper Michigan man who, like all of us, relies on fuel to get from point A to B... to see what these industry changes could mean for residents.

“Once every six weeks, I drive either downstate or through Wisconsin so longer trips, several hundred miles, roundtrip,” says Stephen Luty of Marquette.

Luty, like many Yoopers, says if he goes anywhere in the U.P., it often turns into a road trip.

“My family and my wife’s family are downstate, across the bridge, so we go down there quite frequently,” Luty says. “Gas stations are important as far as knowing where they are, ahead of time, for a trip. Traveling through the U.P., you can’t necessarily plan on having one every five, 10 minutes or five or 10 miles.”

Luty says the more rural the area is, the more he’s noticed the changes to the usual fuel-up spots, from differing prices at the pump to open hours.

“My biggest worry occasionally is when I’m coming back late on a Sunday, is that rural station going to be open?” Luty says.

Analysts at Gas Buddy like Patrick De Haan say this is not unusual with change, with new stations recently acquiring locations in Dickinson County and beyond, adding this could be a boon to drivers like Luty.

“It’s not unusual,” De Haan says. “A lot of stations will make a splash in a new market by cutting prices to very low levels as in to say, here we are, and that’s certainly very attention grabbing for consumers in that area to see a station that’s 20, 30, 40 cents below their competition and so a lot of them use that as free PR.”

Case and point, data from AAA shows the competition can already be seen in digital lights from region to region, with Dickinson County, for example, dropping to $2.88 per gallon on the week of Thanksgiving Day.

De Haan says locally owned stations have to find ways to keep up.

“They are not going to be able to rest on their laurels,” De Haan says. “They have to stay ahead of the game and there’s a lot of major companies that are executing very well, that know exactly what consumers want. They are constantly watching what consumers want and they are adapting very quickly. Station owners that have been established for quite some time are certainly going to need to pay attention to what is new at these stations so they can potentially replicate that and keep their own consumers coming in the doors.”

As for Luty, he says all of that competition should be positive for customers like him. He has one request for the future.

“It’s kind of a pie-in-the-sky dream, but if they all had warm pasties available, that would be awesome,” Luty says.

Gas Buddy analysts say they are constantly tracking, reviewing and updating reports from gas stations from across the state and from surrounding states and have information people can use to plot out their travels before hitting the road for Thanksgiving. That data includes costs at the pump.