Inflation is nuts for oil

General Discussion
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41

Yup!
Here you go:
Inflation and Interest Rates Relationship Explained.

42

Well this will be fun for a while. :face_with_raised_eyebrow:

During the high price plus high interest rate interim.

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  1. Gasoline comes mostly from the same source as motor oil.

  2. I responded to:

44

Luckily we do not use much gas, recall over $4 a gallon, sorry for the people on a thin budget it becomes groceries or gas.

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45

Never heard of Menards.

46

I’m with you on this, Volvo

I don’t lose sleep over the price of these things

I’m not bragging, but I can absorb the added cost(s) at this time

Stressing out about it would diminish my quality of life

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47

Big box hardware store. Got a box of 20 n95 masks. Worried about hoarders stripping the shelves.

48

Probably like a home Depot?

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49

Menards is the third largest home improvement chain in the United States. Paul Menard, the son of the founder raced in NASCAR for many years.

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50

Like Home Depot and Lowes.

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51

I’m seeing a serious misconception here that Producer Cost dictates Consumer Price.
Price is dictated by “What I can sell it for” NOT for What it cost me to make".

Back to motor oil, all petroleum products start with the same feedstock, crude oil, which is priced on an international market and is the same worldwide.
Gasoline, being a frequently purchased commodity with minimal differentiation and broad distribution (my car will run equally well on Costco or Sunoco) tends towards competitive commodity pricing, roughly the same everywhere regardless of brand.

On the other hand, as seen from the frequent discussions, motor oil is more of a discressionary purchase and is priced accordingly. i.e. I’ve convinced consumers that my Super Slick brand with Pixie Dust will offer higher MPG and make the engine last forever so they’ll pay 50% more than the functionally equivalent Generic brand which probably came out of the same refinery pipe.

In this case, if WalMart’s decision to raise their generic motor oil price by roughly 25% was a purely Cost decision which affects all Producers equally then we’d expect that all motor oils would increase equally, which didn’t happen so it’s almost certainly purely a Profit decision.

It’s simple, Walmart’s in business to make a profit, as much profit as they can make. If I can raise my price by 25%, put it straight into my pocket and get away with it, then I’d have to be a fool not to do it and WalMart’s not a fool.

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52

i would like to see a graph of motor oil cost from 2015 to 2022 and compare it to cost of crude oil. i know the price swings for crude oil and pump gas have had huge swings in the last 5-6 years. well, actually since 1973

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I think they were the first. Mainly southern east coast area.

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Menards is headquartered in Wisconsin. Stores are primarily in the midwest. One opened near me in Ohio around 2008. I used them quite a bit.

None here in Florida, sadly.

55

Menards is a nascar team sponsor.
What’s nascar?

56

If the other brands don’t raise their prices by a similar amount in the next year or so then it does seem like that is the case, unless Walmart has been trying to under sell their competition and now they’ve just raised the price to normal.

Walmart.com prices for 5 quarts:
$16.98 Super Tech All Mileage SAE 10W-30 Motor Oil
$19.66 Castrol GTX conventional 10W-30
$16.98 Quaker State All mileage 10W30
$14.45 Chevron Supreme 10W30
$18.98 Pennzoil 10W30 conventional

If what Walmart sells is the same quality as the others then their price is justified.

autozone.com
Dec 2021: $21.99 for STP high mileage conventional 5W30
Sep 2020: $18.99 STP 5W-30 High Mileage Engine Oil 5 Quart

57

Thanks for doing that research ( someone has too much time on their hands ) .

But since both of our vehicles use 0 W 20 Full Synthetic I can’t make use of that list.

I guess I will just have to do it the hard way by checking the prices marked on the shelf when I go to buy oil.

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58

Odd, I thought they were in the Midwest, we only have Lowes and Home Depot in FL.

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Unless they expanded their territory since I retired they were upper Midwest.

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60

I’d go with Chevron. It’s the cheapest, but it’s still “supreme”, apparently :smile: