High Gas Prices In Bemidji Explained

If you drive around Bemidji area you’ll see right now, you’ll see that our average price for gas is around $2.54. Around the state however, gas prices are a little lower.

The average price in Brainerd right now is $2.25, and even down in the Twin Cities, the prices are at $2.40. There’s a lot that goes into determining gas prices like crude oil costs, taxes and distribution. Even weather conditions can play a part in gas prices.

Alan Merschman, the owner of Kenny’s Clark and Goodyear, says, “Everyone’s milk price is different. Everyone’s bread price is different, everyone’s meat price is different, but for the most part we’re the only industry that you price shop at 65 miles an hour. You can be driving down the interstate 85 miles an hour and know what the price of gas is on the stations you go by. It’s just something unique to our industry that it forces everybody to stay the same price because if you run the price down, they match you. If you run the price up, they may, they may not.”

For Bemidji, it generally takes longer for to gas prices to go up – just like it takes longer for our gas prices to go down. It all has to do with the suppliers that come to the Bemidji area.

Merschman says, “Our suppliers – actually Minnesota Petroleum Marketers Association and Bemidji traditionally has the tightest margins and the lowest prices in Minnesota, if we want to look historically over the past number of years. There are times when Bemidji is a little bit higher but our prices also go up slower. So what happens is a lot of time when prices are going up, and the market’s been very very volatile for a while. When the prices go up, the retail never keeps up to what we’re actually paying for it, and there are times we’re selling it for what we pay for it – maybe even less.”

There’s also no way to determine how much gas will be in the future.