Saving cents

AAA says gas prices will be dropping.

Gasoline prices shot up 40 cents to 50 cents seemingly overnight between hurricanes Harvey and Irma in early September.

So of course with impacts from those two storms fading, wholesalers and retailers are going to take their sweet time bringing those prices back down again.

Travel club AAA says consumers should see gas prices ease ever so slowly downward now that Gulf Coast refineries shut down by Hurricane Harvey are up and running again, and Floridians are no longer prepping for Hurricane Irma by sitting in long lines to top off their tanks.

On Monday, the average pump price in Florida was $2.68 in Florida — a dime more than the national average of $2.58.

In a news release, AAA said prices in Florida have declined 5 cents in 10 days and should dip another 5 cents to 10 cents over the coming week.

That’s a tortoise pace compared to the hare quickness that prices spiked after Hurricane Harvey. Perpump prices went from $2.24 on Aug. 21 to $2.64 on Labor Day before peaking nine cents higher, at $2.73, on Sept. 14.

In South Florida, the average price was $2.70 in Broward County, $2.72 in Miami-Dade County and $2.76 in Miami-Dade.

“If it weren’t for the recent hurricanes, gas prices would be about 25 cents lower,” said AAA spokesman Mark Jenkins. “Since gas prices decline much slower than they rise, it could take a few weeks before they reach equilibrium.”

If it’s any consolation, Jenkins said prices didn’t rise as quickly as he expected in the days after Hurricane Harvey hit Texas on Aug. 25. “Right after Harvey hit, we expected prices to surge. It hovered at existing levels for several days and then finally it kicked in and kicked in big.”

Sometimes retailers hold back from raising prices for competitive reasons even after wholesale prices spike, Jenkins said. Allowing prices to remain high after market forces start moving them downward “is where they make up for those lost profits,” Jenkins said.

Eventually, a few isolated retailers decide to gain advantage by dropping their prices noticeably lower. “Then the other guys follow” and the race is on, he said.

The gas price watchdog site, GasBuddy.com, holds a couple of clues as to which retailers might

give this sleigh a shove down to the slope.

In Palm Beach County, it probably won’t be Valero at Jog and Clint Moore roads in Boca Raton. That station was charging $3.15 a gallon, according to GasBuddy’s spotters.

The lowest price in Palm Beach County that doesn’t require a wholesale club membership was $2.57 at two stations: Rocket Fuel at U.S. 1 and Palmetto Drive in North Palm Beach, and Majestic on U.S. 1 just south of 10th Avenue North in Lake Worth.

In Broward County, a competitive cluster emerged west of the Florida Turnpike and south of the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino. Rocket Fuel, at $2.48, led the way on Johnson Street between North University Drive and the Turnpike in Pembroke Pines. Several stations in the immediate area — on Johnson and Sheridan streets and North University Drive — were posting prices ranging from $2.50 to $2.54.

Meanwhile in MiamiDade County, Westar at Northwest 103rd Street and Northwest 22nd Avenue in West Little River was selling for $2.49.

But if those prices are too low and you need some help getting that pesky money off of your hands, head over to Miami Beach where you can find at least five stations priced over $3 a gallon, including the Shell station just over the Julia Tuttle Causeway, where gas was $3.45 a gallon.