If I need to make a left turn across traffic or go around the block I'm not topping off at a station just for 5 cents/gal. (Tho, I might make a mental note & use that station when I'm coming down the other way, when it's easy to in & out.)
Los Angeles in particular is crazy. We have the equivalent to micro-climates with fuel prices. Stations a half mile apart can be 30¢ different. Stations a town apart can be 70–80¢ different.
And there are a couple of stations in Beverly Hills adjacent that are ~$2.50 more than the going rate (no surprise there, tho).
What RealPage does is distinct because it assures prices are always above and by orders of magnitude what they should be. It also achieves that through private communication which I think is generally accepted as a problem.
the only question is how much profit to put on top and even then they have to be careful as if they go too low their competetors won't follow and then they have to pay extra for an unscheuled delivery just to fill their tank.
i'm reasonable certian that small stations are illegally colluding in some cases.
“Skimmers” (drastically lower-priced diesel stations) are a real threat to larger chain stations. They don’t put them out of business entirely for a number of reasons, but one is because gas stations ultimately sell more than gas/diesel (e.g. a clean bathroom is often worth a few extra cents per gallon for me, but there’s a lot more than that too). Also any given station can’t sell an infinite amount of fuel. Beyond tank capacity, wait times are a real impact on sales volume, and so if a station offers a price too low (even if still profitable), it is just leaving money on the table.
So not to say collusion doesn’t happen, but one can also arrive at similar pricing with a commodity like gas without it. Especially since fuel margins are typically low.