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Gasoline price trivia

Posted at 7:42 PM on May 29, 2008 by Bob Collins (5 Comments)

gas_price_trivia.jpg

While passing a gas station convenience store in Inver Grove Heights this week, we realized that something is about to happen that hasn't happened in years: the price of a gallon of gasoline is soon going to be higher than the price of a pack of cigarettes.

Significant research Lazy browsing on the Internet failed to turn up a source of the historical prices of cigarettes, to match against existing documentation on the price of gasoline. So we'll have to rely on your memory.

Anyone?

Update Fri 8:06 a.m. That sign is so yesterday. Today the price of gas at the same spot is $3.92.

Comments (5)

Just out of High School )1973), my memory is that gas had just jumped up to 37.9 cents a gallon. A pack of cigarettes cost at least twice as much - maybe as much as a dollar.

Posted by dwp4401 | May 30, 2008 3:45 AM

Early 70's, gas was running about 35 to 40cents a gallon. Cigarettes were about the same, but were starting to get taxed more heavily. I remember the price of a carton being about what the price of a pack is now. Where you lived had alot to do with it too. The tobacco states (south of the mason dixon line) had cigarettes for $2 or $3 a carton. Always stocked up while driving south for Spring break!

Posted by minn whaler | May 30, 2008 6:46 AM

In the summer of '72 I was sharing a house with a guy who ran a Derby gas station in Iowa. They had a price war policy and that summer he got all the way down to 20¢ a gallon for gas. Cigarettes were $3.35 a carton, or 35¢ a pack.

I suspect that the date you're looking for is in the '70s though.

Posted by Mark Gisleson | May 30, 2008 10:25 AM

I always compared the price of a gallon gasoline to the price of a gallon of milk.

Posted by Onan | May 30, 2008 11:40 AM

I recall President Reagan saying that 'Gasoline is now $ 1.00 a gallon." That was in 80 or 81. How much were you paying for cigs then...?

Posted by Robert WEISER | September 22, 2008 9:02 PM

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