For cheaper gas, Denver drivers should get out of town – to the suburbs, to be exact.
A first-of-its-kind analysis of Colorado gas price data by The Denver Post shows relatively lower prices – between 2 and 7 cents – in all but a handful of Denver’s suburbs as of June 1.
The highest prices, not surprisingly, are in mountain communities and small outlying towns.
The figures, covering 1,377 outlets, or 60 percent of the state’s total, also reveal that grocery stores and discount clubs frequently offer lower prices than traditional service stations. They also happen to be relatively recent entrants into the gasoline business.
Among cities and towns, average prices ranged from a low of $1.973 for a gallon of regular unleaded in Parker to a high of $2.699 in Aspen.
Competition, delivery costs and real estate prices contribute to the price variance, experts said.
“A lot of it is just the cost of doing business,” said Mary Greer, spokeswoman for AAA Colorado. “It depends on their location and what the wholesalers are charging them.”
Among metro-area cities, Littleton, Golden, Morrison, Evergreen and Englewood posted prices per gallon that were higher than those in Denver. Because of U.S. Postal Service boundaries, some stations listed as being in Englewood actually lie within unincorporated Arapahoe County.
In addition to Parker, a southeastern suburb, Louisville, Broomfield and Arvada emerged as the only other metro cities where the price per gallon was below $2. Denver was at $2.043.
“It’s interesting, but I’m probably not going to drive out of my way,” Alisha Luiz, 20, of Thornton said of the survey results. “You would waste gas just going there.”
The Post based its analysis on newly released data from AAA, which late last month launched a service on its website – www.aaa.com – providing detailed gas price information for users who enter their ZIP codes.
The site is updated daily with information provided by Oil Price Information Service, or OPIS, a New Jersey company that uses data collected from corporate fleet-card users and station managers to track price information at about 70 percent of all U.S. stations.
The price information provided to The Post was collected a week ago today and based on the last transaction of the day at each of the stations. Stations may have been excluded from the data if they did not process any fleet-card transactions that day, said Fred Rozell, retail pricing director for OPIS.
Parker’s emergence as a hub of comparatively cheap gas came as a surprise to Tracy Sherman, executive director of the Parker Economic Development Council.
“A few years ago we were among the most expensive,” Sherman said. “But we’ve gotten a couple of grocery stores that also serve gas, and they seem to be pretty good discounters. When those stations came in, frankly, they have impacted and affected the changes at other stations.”
Roy Turner, executive vice president of the Colorado/Wyoming Petroleum Marketers and Convenience Store Association, said competition is a major factor in the price differences.
Grocers and discount clubs with fueling stations have developed more prolifically in suburban locations, where land is more available and new projects have been built at breakneck speeds. Such projects have only recently found their way into the city of Denver.
Safeway spokesman Jeff Stroh said the company’s fuel-station managers closely monitor prices at nearby stations to ensure they remain competitive.
A lack of such competition – as well as higher fuel transportation costs and generally higher costs of doing business – also contributed to the higher prices apparent in mountain resort communities.
Excluding grocers and discount clubs, brands offering the least expensive gas included Flying J, Total, PDQ and Citgo. The most expensive was Kum & Go, which operates 17 Colorado stores, with the majority concentrated in Craig, Glenwood Springs, Leadville and Rifle.
Prices varied strongly even within brands.
“There are several factors that could contribute to price variance,” said Mary Rose Brown, a spokeswoman for Valero, which owns Diamond Shamrock. “Diamond Shamrock sites in Colorado are operated by independent dealers and distributors who are free to charge any street price they deem appropriate depending on the underlying costs of operating the facility.”
Daily price figures are available at www.aaa.com. Site traffic was so heavy when the service launched late last month that the site was immediately taken off line for four days so its server capacity could be increased.
Computer-assisted reporting editor Jeffrey A. Roberts assisted with this report.
Staff writer Kristi Arellano can be reached at 303-820-1902 or karellano@denverpost.com.
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