Gas station owner told to raise prices
Sphere: Related Content
MERRILL, Wis. - A service station that offered discounted gas to senior citizens and people supporting youth sports has been ordered by the state to raise its prices.
Center City BP owner Raj Bhandari has been offering senior citizens a 2 cent per gallon price break and discount cards that let sports boosters pay 3 cents less per gallon.
But the state Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection says those deals violate Wisconsin’s Unfair Sales Act, which requires stations to sell gas for about 9.2 percent more than the wholesale price.
Bhandari said he received a letter from the state auditor last month saying the state would sue him if he did not raise his prices. The state could penalize him for each discounted gallon he sold, with the fine determined by a judge.
Bhandari, who bought the station a year ago, said he worries customers will think he stopped the discounts because he wants to make more money. About 10 percent of his customers had used the discount cards.
Dale Van Camp said he bought a $50 card to support the local youth hockey program. It would have saved him about $100 per year on gas, he said.
![[Valid RSS]](http://politicalpartypoop.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/09/valid-rss.png "Validate my RSS feed")
May 9th, 2007 at 5:36 pm
can’t blame haliburton for this bizarre, state goverment price fix! why should the state of wisconsin interfere with a private business owner when there is no health or safety matter involved?
May 9th, 2007 at 6:12 pm
perfect! the government now wants to tell someone just how much profit they must make. I thought our economy was based on supply and demand and creative marketing to get a consumer.
May 9th, 2007 at 6:14 pm
this man should make copies of the state letter and paste them any where he can to show his customers what is truly happening
May 9th, 2007 at 7:26 pm
remind me never tp take my over 2000 vacationers to wisconson again, usually 5 or bus loads a year. i’m sure my customers would rather spend their money someplace else after the state interfereing with private enterprise. i will also get a letter out to all the travel agents and trip managers to avoid this state. it’s bad enough our gov’t accepts being raped by foriegn oil. much less have your home state tell you, you can’t give discounts to senior citezens. well people this is where we can take a stand!! boycott wisconson!!!
May 9th, 2007 at 8:33 pm
bah humbug to our federal and state/municipal governments. and, oh, Larry, finally an american who realizes that “rape” is the appropriate word to describe what the oil companies are doing to the american consumer; not to mention the automotive giants who won’t put efficient fuel injection systems in our vehicles/the feds can tell them they have so much time to do it, but nothing is being done. The same old song of the strings of government puppets being pulled by the big shots.
May 10th, 2007 at 9:57 am
One of our major retail chains do this in NC. All you have to do is put money on their gift card. By doing this customers can save two to three cents per gallon. Is this different?
Maybe because this chain may own their own gas station but where does this station get their gas? From my understanding all gas comes from the same places.
This discounts violate Wisconsin “unfair sales act” - I think it is the other way around. We, the American Citizen, are being violated by the “unfair sales act” because of the high prices of gas.
May 10th, 2007 at 12:15 pm
Feds suck!!!!
Bigtime !!! And, it getting worse , here in America, doesn’t anyone see this?
May 10th, 2007 at 12:30 pm
Typical Bush-league government BS. How can we see as much as 15 cents difference in gas prices at the pump with BP, Hess, and Citgo stations in different places throughout the state?
May 10th, 2007 at 4:58 pm
it seems to me that our system works very well till some state or fed gov starts to mess with things/// a store owners should be able to adjust his prices to what HE feels is best for him to make money
May 28th, 2007 at 10:49 pm
Take the Pledge
All Presidential Candidates should make pledges like those below. If they refuse, then you should refuse to vote for them.
1. No More Oil Wars.
2. Work for independence from foreign oil on day one.
3. No more wars for corporate profit.
4. No more secret deals for $4 per gallon gas.
5. No more Chicken Hawks promoting wars of choice when they themselves avoided combat.
6. Make government green–if you can’t make what you have the most control over green, I don’t care about your plans to make the country green.
7. No more torture.
8. No more lying about torture.
9. No more re-defining torture.
10. No more drunken hunting.
11. No more secret deals with big corporations to divide up the spoils before the war even starts.