Dealing with angry gas station customers

As gas prices continue to rise, tempers are flaring. Convenience store owners say gas prices are an emotional issue and they're getting an earful about the recent spikes. <br/><br/>News on 6 reporter

Thursday, September 1st 2005, 2:10 pm

By: News On 6

As gas prices continue to rise, tempers are flaring. Convenience store owners say gas prices are an emotional issue and they're getting an earful about the recent spikes.

News on 6 reporter Ashli Sims talks to store owners and drivers about pain at the pump.

With a fifty-cent jump in five days, sticker-shock has turned into sticker-rage.

Driver Jeff Harper: "I'm mad about 'em and you follow the money trail and you'll find out where all the money's going into the oil companies pockets just look at their profit margins."

Driver Paul Spurrier: "I think if President Bush wanted to do something for this country he would put a freeze on gas prices to keep it from getting any higher."

Driver John Biever: â€œpersonally I think the petroleum industry is ripping people off, I don't think itâ€™s a just situation."

Most folks don't have access to a big oil company, so sometimes the complaints are dumped on the clerks.

Convenience store owner Burly White: "they're angry when the see the price but they don't take it out on us but they do vent it to us, they let us know.â€

Local convenience store owners say they're not reaping the benefits. Convenience store owner Wanda Batman: "Just because the gas goes up, our price goes up too. So the stores are not making a whole lot of extra money. We're making the same two or three cents we were making before because it went up, so it went up for us too."

Store owners are hoping, along with everyone else, that what goes up must eventually come back down.