Hey, Zach here. Just a quick note, gas stations was our very first episode of the

economics of everyday things all the way back in January of 2023. When we first published this,

gas prices were coming off of a historic high of around $5 a gallon. Today, the national average is back down to a little

over $3 a gallon. We've made a few updates to the story to bring it up to date. All right, on we go.

We Americans just love our gasoline.

We use 376 million gallons of finished motor gas every day.

That's around 30 full tanks for every registered vehicle each year.

In many ways, gas is the workhorse that drives our economy. It gets us to the

office, grocery stores, and shopping centers. As much as we love gasoline, we also love to

complain about how much it costs. The price of gas tends to go up and down in cycles. That's the

result of a pretty complicated

web of global market forces, seasonal patterns, and geopolitics.

When gas gets expensive, we all look for someone to blame. Politicians, oil executives,

foreign governments. But the easiest target is the person who has to contend with disgruntled customers face-to-face, the gas station owner.

When you stand at the pump and watch the bill tick up, $10, $20, $50, you may think that gas station owners are making out like bandits.

But is that really the case?

No, can I yell that any louder?

It's definitely not what people think.

For the Freakonomics Radio Network,

this is the economics of everyday things.

I'm Zachary Crockett.

Today, gas stations.

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