JACKSON GAS PRICES PLUNGE

JACKSON -- Gas prices along Highway 61 in Jackson have been plunging this week in response to a Citgo station promotion.

A new Citgo station opened a week ago on Highway 61. To celebrate it immediately began lowering its gas prices by a penny or two a day.

Now prices are approximately 15 cents lower in that part of town than just about anywhere in Jackson or Cape Girardeau.

"This was just a way for us to show our appreciation to the people of Jackson," Rob Bechtold, district manager for J.D. Street, said. "It was not our intention to have a gas war."

But a gas war is what seems to be happening as the Sinclair, Stogies and Rhodes 101 stations, all on Highway 61, are dropping their prices to match.

That's no surprise to Bechtold.

"We figured they wouldn't let us walk away with it," he said.

Kevin Stanfield, co-owner of Winks convenience stores in Jackson, said the Sinclair station is not suffering from the price race.

"We're just meeting the competition," Stanfield said. "Citgo opened a new store. They wanted to make a statement, and we're just following the competition. It has increased gas sales quite a bit."

The daily drop in gas prices has brought comments from all the customers at the Jackson Citgo. Citgo clerk Lisa Wolters said she has been benefiting from the lower prices.

"I filled up just yesterday," she said. "I wish I had waited because the price dropped even lower the next day."

Bechtold said the price will bottom out soon.

"I'll be surprised if the other stations follow us all the way down to cost," he said. "We're not exactly getting rich doing this."

Rhodes 101, at 113 W. Jackson Blvd., had a gas price of $1.01 Thursday for regular unleaded gasoline. The manager of the Jackson Rhodes stores was in St. Louis and unavailable for comment.

Paula Tucker, the manager at Stogies, 304 E. Highway 61, which had a regular unleaded price of $1.04 Thursday, said her store is responding to the competition but not as vigorously as the other stations.

"That's what you have to do when you're in the gas business," she said. "I just can't see dropping to cost."

Unlike some of the other stations that are seeing an increase in traffic from the promotion, Tucker said her store is relatively unaffected.

"It hasn't hurt us one way or the other," she said, adding she doesn't know how long the prices will stay down. "I'm not a fortune teller."