Another holiday weekend is upon us so before you head off to the beach or your backyard barbecues, here's a quick run down of what you might have missed this week.
Incomes drop a whole bunch.
Local grocery store closing.
Direct bus service to New York canceled.
Blame it on Gustav.
And of course you'll want to check out this week's podcast from the business staff. What can you expect to hear? All about shiny things and dumb people.
Story in the Times this morning about a contract becoming official for the Chinese to start developing an Iraqi oil field. It's based on a contract originally signed with Saddam.
So with oil prices going up again and our troops freeing up that oil from despotism, U.N. sanctions against the regime and whatnot, do you think we should get that oil ... and get it at a discount?
Or is it only fair that the free market play out?
Happy Friday afternoon, York! Here's the news that you may have missed this week.
Sellers react to E-bay rule changes.
Restaurant goes smoke free early.
Businesses take steps to reduce energy costs.
Russia, Georgia situation still tense.
And of course you don't want to miss this week's edition of Money Talk. Check it out below.
Joe, one of our readers, left this comment about where he saw cheap gas in the area:
On 8/20: $3.31 @ Citgo on Rt 30 and Fairlane. 30 cents cheaper than the Citgo at RT 30 and Sherman. The one on Fairlane is a gem. Hands down cheapest, always as of late.
Thanks for the tip, Joe!
If you've spotted stations selling gas a few cents cheaper than the norm feel free to share in the comments section.
I was driving around on my lunch break and noticed a bunch of different gas stations where gas was $3.39.
That's the lowest I've seen so far, has anyone seen anything lower?
Yesterday we said that Hershey was increasing prices for its candy because supplies and energy costs for them went up.
Today, the Labor Department said a whole lot more than chocolate is going up in price. Inflation is double what was expected, and inflation basically is a measure of how much EVERYTHING is going up in price.
So if you are in the habit of looking at the gas signs along the road to figure out when this economy is going to turn around, I wouldn't recommend it. Gas is probably the only thing going down in price with an inflation rate of 1.2 percent.
And no, that's not small. That means that for all intends and purposes, for every $100 you have in the bank, you have lost $1.20 in buying power. Have $10,000 to your name? Well, sorry about your luck, you just lost $120 worth of buying power.
Remember when gas was close to $4 per gallon so everyone cut back on their driving?
Well I miss the empty roads.
Road trips were so much quicker without all the traffic congestion on the major highways.
But now that prices have fallen, consumer confidence is starting to creep up a little bit and people are hitting the road again.
Traffic is back. That's something I'm hearing from travelers returning from weekend trips. My wife and I went to go to Baltimore Sunday, and we saw the same thing.
Not like we or anyone else on the roads should be surprised. After all, three of the four members of our biz staff (everyone I talked to so far this morning) said they were traveling long distances recently.
It's almost like people have been waiting to drive here, there and everywhere until gas prices improved, then did it all with the $3.42-ish-for-regular weekend we just had.
So what do you think? Is this where people stop saying "ouch" at the pumps and start getting back to business as usual?
Also, while you're thinking about that, take a look at one of our stories last week about a local share-a-ride service expecting their best month ever this August, despite the month's slow drop in gas prices.
With just a few hours until the weekend, it's time for your dose of business news.
Gas still too high; people want to share rides.
Local businesspeople get their groove on.
Green-collar jobs on the rise.
And for the latest from your biz staff, check out this week's podcast for a look at the real estate landscape and what first-time homebuyers need to know.
Growing up and getting my license when gas was 89 cents a gallon - just 10 years ago, mind you - my parents had their version of the "we walked uphill both ways to school" story.
It was called the 1970s, when gasoline was rationed and long lines existed at stations just to fuel up. Battlefields in the Middle East were hot, and America backed the little guy called Israel, and it wasn't the country with the oil.
It's bad, but I was pretty giddy with excitement when I drove past Delco Plaza and saw gas was $3.49 per gallon.
That's a far cry from cheap, but it's cheaper than it was.
I just hope it keeps coming down.
It's been a crazy busy week for the business staff. What with a bunch of companies releasing earnings reports and Boscov's filing Chapter 11. Yeeesh.
I'm glad it's almost the weekend. And I'm sure you are too.
We're going to mix things up here this week and instead of a list of links for you to check out, I'm going to leave you with our brand-spanking new podcast. Take a listen. (P.S. You have to leave this page open while you listen, but just open another browser window so you can get on with your regularly scheduled Internet surfing.)
This weekend, my wife and I are planting a few trees in our backyard. We're hoping that we'll gain some privacy and add character to the yard. We decided to sink some money in fixing up the yard rather than spend cash on a vacation to some tourist trap. I think its paid off. We're getting some exercise, not wasting gas and increasing the value of our property. Have you taken a vacation this year? Can you afford the trip?
It is the No. 1 reason I do not cook as often as I would like.
Spoiled produce. It only takes one unplanned late night at work or other schedule speed bump to throw off my well-laid plans of cooking for a week. And when the plans go awry, the ingredients spoil, so I just give up all hope of cooking the next week because I don't want the food to just go to waste again.
Thankfully, the article offers some tips, especially important as more of us (myself included) try to cook more to save money.
Does anyone else have this problem? Or was this story written just for me?
I usually try to stay away from opinion pieces for blogs, but I thought this one referenced a lot of good information in terms of how people see the very broadly termed group "big business."
It ranks the profit margins (basically, the amount of money companies keep for themselves after they sell stuff to people) that the average company pulls in by industry. Anyone surprised at the leading profit margin-generating industries?
Of course, as with anything marked with the opinion label, take it with a grain of salt, but if you want to educate yourself with some background on this whole "windfall profit" debate going on, I'd recommend this as something to read.
I've written numerous times before about how gas prices seemed to be cheaper on the east side of town.
So I was more than a little surprised on Saturday when I was out in Springettsbury Township to see that gas was about six cents more expensive than it was on the west side.
The way different stations set their prices will never cease to boggle my mind.
Another week has come and just about gone and I'm here to catch you up on what you might have missed this week.
Shoppers be on the alert for sales.
New winery opens in Adams County.
Is anyone surprised Big Oil had a big quarter?
Big name sports company finds major worker violations.
How germy is your work environment?
