Petrol Price Protest

[KarlM]

I didn't come up with this idea, but saw it on several other forums and thought it worthy an idea to spread around. I remember it loosely being tried by some people last time, but its an idea that won't work without everyones (or at least a greater percentage) involvement.

Crux of message is below:


This makes MUCH MORE SENSE than the "don't buy petrol on a certain day" campaign that was going around last April or May! The oil companies just laughed at that because they knew we wouldn't continue to hurt ourselves by refusing to buy petrol. It was more of an inconvenience to us than it was a problem for them.


BUT, whoever thought of this idea has come up with a plan that canreally work. Please read it and join in!



Now that the oil companies and the OPEC nations have conditioned us tothink that the cost of a litre is CHEAP at 77p -80p, we need to take aggressive action to teach them that BUYERS control the marketplace not sellers. With the price of petrol going up more each day, we consumers need to take action. The only way we are going to see the price of petrol come down is if we hit someone in the pocket by not purchasing their Petrol! And we can do that WITHOUT hurting ourselves. Here's the idea:



For the rest of this year, DON'T purchase ANY petrol from the two biggest oil companies (which now are one), ESSO and BP. If they are not selling any petrol, they will be inclined to reduce their prices. If they reduce their prices, the other companies will have to follow suit. But to have an impact, we need to reach literally millions of Esso and BP petrol buyers. It's really simple to do!! Now, don't whimp out on me at this point... keep reading and I'll explain how simple it is to reach millions of people! I am sending this note to a; lot of people. If each of you send it to at least ten more (30 x 10 = 300)... and those 300 send it to at least ten more (300 x 10 = 3,000) ... and so on, by the time the message reaches the sixth generation of people, we will have reached over THREE MILLION consumers! If those three million get excited and pass this on to ten friends each, then 30 million people will have been contacted! If it goes one level further, you guessed it..... THREE HUNDRED MILLION PEOPLE!!! Again, all you have to do is send this to 10 people. That's all.(and not buy at ESSO/BP) How long would all that take? If each of us sends this email out to ten more people within one day of receipt, all 300 MILLION people could conceivably be contacted within the next 8 days!!! I'll bet you didn't think you and I had that much potential, did you! Acting together we can make a difference. If this makes sense to you, please pass this message on. PLEASE HOLD OUT UNTIL THEY LOWER THEIR PRICES TO THE 69p a LITRE RANGE


Action:

It's easy to make this happen. Just forward this email, and buy your petrol at Shell, Tesco, Sainsburys, Morrisons (75p)Jet etc. i.e. boycott BP and Esso.

[Tahrey1043]

only problem is the oil companies dont have much to do with it - they're running at rather thin profit margins. government super high taxes (look at america - they're livid about prices that are HALF ours - you think the companies sell cheaper preferentially to the states?) and shortage of supply, partially from scarcity of product, is the problem.

[Karl_CLCoupe]

The ball lies in the government's court me thinks. Its up to them to bring the tax down on the fuel before the oil companies will budge. I think realistically 69p a litre can't be achieved, but there's the possibility of up to 10p a litre reduction on what whats being paid now for fuel if enough hoo har is made about it.

Just a thought.

Karl.

[jon_poloV]

defonatley up to the goverment!
jon

[aparker]

I wouldn't be able to not buy my petrol at Essco as this is the best fuel I can get for my car. It runs more relable and solves my problem with my car stalling, which I get with other fuel companys such as BP and supermarkets and belive me the amount of fuel I go through a week, 400-700 miles worth and I've tryied loads of diffrent companys all over the country Essco is far the best.

[Tahrey1043]

Dunno, mine wasn't too happy on the way down with Esso.
Mind you it did have about a quarter tank of non-optimax Shell left so maybe there was a bad reaction!

Who supplies the fuel for the big supermarkets (Tesco, Asda, etc)? That's the big question. They're generally the cheapest, though quality is an unknown quantity and supply completely a mystery

[carmadaaron]

Who supplies the fuel for the big supermarkets (Tesco, Asda, etc)? That's the big question. They're generally the cheapest, though quality is an unknown quantity and supply completely a mystery

ive heard that they mix petrol with other oils.
even worse water! thats unlikely tho

[Karl_CLCoupe]

Thing is though, that the market is a large oligopoly, so theres gonna be the likes of Esso and BP controlling the market, which probably means they will be supplying some of the supermarkets.

[Tahrey1043]

Last time there was any trouble in my uni town with people putting water in the petrol, it was indeed Tesco... the Esso garage a few hundred yards down the road proudly displayed "unlike some our petrol is pure" sign for a few months after the balloon went up

((I'm now thinking the stuttering engine is something deeper than just the fuel - like the plugs or something))