Decatur "gas war" draws lines at the pump

DECATUR, Ind. (WANE)--Low gas prices sent drivers in Decatur into a bit of a frenzy Friday morning.  Long lines wrapped around several stations that had prices under three dollars a gallon.  Folks in the small town are pointing to the new Kroger fuel center beginning what some are calling a gas war.

Earlier in October, Kroger opened its new fuel center in Decatur.  Some people think its lower than average prices drove down the competition, which ignited an attempt by several stations to have the lowest gas prices in the area.

On Friday morning, gas was $2.97 a gallon at Kroger. Dozens of cars waited in line to get the cheap stuff.  It went back up to $3.19 a gallon later in the afternoon.

Kroger wasn't alone in offering low prices. The Swifty in Decatur was $2.98 a gallon Friday morning and also drew long lines.  Larry Romary was stockpiling the low-priced gas in containers in his trunk.

"Kroger I think is the one that started the gas war.  They just had a grand opening down the way here and they were almost $3.10 for about a week and that made everybody else come down.  That’s almost below wholesale, the price they're selling that," Romary said.  "It won’t last.  I think it’ll go up a little bit."

Kroger spokesman John Elliot said their low fuel prices are a part of the company's business model.
    
"We just set an amount that we want to be lower than the competitors and when they move up or down we follow to protect that margin," Elliot said. "There might be a little more competitive pricing when the fuel center opens, but it should pretty quickly slip into that same model that I described."