Say Tesco Store A has a customer base of say, 1000 customers per week as they're out in the sticks, and Tesco Store B is in a busy town centre and has 10,000 customers per week.
Tesco A must still make enough to pay for petrol station staff wages, the overheads of actually running the place and maintenance etc. Tesco B has a lot more customers, so can afford to make less profit per transaction than Tesco A and still come out at a profit.
It's not really this at all - there are plenty of huge turnover Tesco stores with higher fuel prices.
The reason really is as simple as that which I gave in Post 8.
They charge more simply because there is no need for them to charge less. If you have a Tesco filling station and within a 5 mile radius there are 10 other filling stations, the minimum price of which is say 137.9p a litre, why charge 134.9? It is simply not required to attract the business.
2 towns over, there might be another Tesco with another 10 filling stations within a 5 mile radius. But some of these charge just 134.9p a litre. In this situation, as a Tesco store, you'd want to charge 134.9p a litre to ensure you continue to attract the business.
Bingo - two tesco stores, two different prices.
It really is that simple and quite why there is now a 2 page thread I've no idea.
Oh wait, it's an easyrider thread.
I sympathise with easyrider. I also find it frustrating that this happens despite knowing exactly why it does. But nothing is more effective than simply using another filling station, which is what I do when its the case. Unless there isn't another one thats cheaper, in which case Tesco are still the cheapest locally, so...
Why isn't this the case with Asda and Morrisons? Simple - its just a marketing decision. Asda and Morrisons feel that the goodwill generated by having a fixed price for the entire country is worth more to them than the profit lost by being so much cheaper than they need to be. Thats a commercial decision.