Tuesday, October 15, 2024

It’s Confirmed, Mendocino Coast Gas Station Is the ‘Most Expensive in America’ Charging $8.45 Per Gallon

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A gas pump at Schlafer’s Auto Body & Repair on Tuesday, March 7, 2022. Currently, this gas station has the most expensive gas in the United States [Picture provided by Galen Bach]

The seaside town of Mendocino has a single gas station called Schlafer’s Auto Body & Repair.

Yesterday, coastal resident Galen Bach took a picture of the gas pump and thought it worthy of posting on social media. For the regular price of gasoline, a customer of Schlafer’s would pay $8.45, which is just shy of double the national average of $4.25, and 42% more expensive than the average gallon of gas in California.

Patrick De Haan, the Head of GasBuddy.com’s Petroleum analysis team, told us that the price per gallon at Schlafer’s has “a very strong likelihood that this is the most expensive station in America.” De Haan reviewed GasBuddy’s records of current gas prices across the United States, and he told us, “I can’t find any more expensive at the present moment.”

Last summer Schlafer’s made national news for officially being considered the most expensive fuel in the country, at that point charging $6.73 for a gallon of gas. Owner Judith Schlafer told SF Gate’s Freda Moon after she learned their station was currently the most expensive in the country, “It has to be that way, or I’d be out of business.”

Galen Bach, according to him the “best chimney sweep ever”, told us he has had to raise his service prices across the board on the coast. He is paying more for parts, gas, and the general cost of living. He remembered buying six bags of groceries recently at Mendocino’s Harvest Market and paying $455.

Currently, the North Coast of California has one of the most expensive gasoline markets, as per AAA’s County Gas Prices map

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The map provides a county-by-county breakdown of the average cost of a gallon of gas. Coming in first place on the North Coast is Humboldt County at $5.70, second Del Norte at $5.64, third is Sonoma at $5.57, fourth is Trinity at $5.41, the fifth is Lake at $5.43, and coming in sixth for the cheapest gas currently on the North Coast in Mendocino County at $5.35. Worth noting, it looks like Mono County, east of the Sierra Nevada mountains has the state’s highest gas prices at $6.02.

It was just yesterday that California’s average gas price crept above $5 per gallon for the first time in history. De Haan told the SFGATE yesterday that he could see California’s average gallon of gas costing $6 and a growing number of gas stations charging $8 or more.

This dramatic rise in gas prices is the result of a multitude of forces converging including the deliberate dialing back of domestic oil production in 2019, sanctions against Iran and Venezuela decreasing worldwide supply, the pandemic’s heightened demand for petroleum-based products such as medical plastics, the recent sanctions levied against Russia, and finally a number of taxes specific to the state of California.

Bach told us that when he posted the photograph of gas prices in Mendocino, a heated political debate erupted on his Facebook profile with many Trump voters blaming Biden for the gas prices.

Putting aside politics, the dramatic rise in gas prices has got this father of three thinking about money in a completely different light. With these prices, Bach said,  “I have three kids I’m raising. It’s not easy at all.”

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7 COMMENTS

  1. All this money that the town of Mendocino charges for gas and other items, but they can’t manage their own water issues without wanting other communities that have their own water issues, to provide water for them.

  2. Gas has always been cheaper in Albion and at every station both North and South of Mendocino. In the five years I have lived here I have purchased gas there one time and then I only bough a gallon so I could go in to Fort Bragg and but at a reasonable rate.

  3. Gas was over $5 per gallon in 1978 when I drove convoy during NATO games in Germany
    Gas was over $5 per gallon in 1979/80 when stationed in Iwakuni Japan
    One did not see big gas guzzeling muscle cars cruising the strip.
    Lots of scooters and bicycles/

  4. in Massachusetts Where I Live some gas stations are hovering around 5 bucks a gallon for regular and around 6 a gallon for premium and nearly 7 a gallon for diesel these are the highest prices in my life time. for ex when the family went to Six Flags Great America in NJ in Summer 1999 Gas was around $1.20 gallon for regular or when we went to the Concert For New York in October 2001 Gas was a 1.30 a Gallon though we took the Amtrak Accella train that time rather than driving or when my dad my younger brother and I went to Virginia/Washington DC for Awesome Games Done Quick speed running convention in January 2018 gas was $2.56 a gallon and the vehicle we rented had a 19.5 Gallon tank so it cost around $50.00 to fill it then where as yesterday when he filled the used 2011 Cadillac SRX he drives now it cost nearly $90 dollars and nearly $70 to fill my deceased grandmothers 05 Toyota Camry my younger brother drives now. had you told her that in Nov 04 when we bought her the car she would’ve laughed at you as when she got her driver’s license in 1963 gas was 30 cents a gallon and most cars had bigger gas tanks the Cadillac Deville series for ex had a 26 gal tank until the early 1980s and later got as low as an 19 gal tank in its last gen 1998 to 2005

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Matt LaFever
Matt LaFeverhttps://mendofever.com/
For the past seven years, Matt LaFever has covered the North Coast of California in both print and radio news. A Humboldt State graduate, he has lived in the Emerald Triangle for nearly 20 years. His reporting spans local issues like crime and wildfires. When not writing, Matt is an avid outdoorsman, exploring Northern California’s rugged landscapes. Reach out to him at matthewplafever@gmail.com.

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