[Pittsburgh] gas prices

Tonight I saw a 35-cent span of gas prices (!). No, I don't mean from the cheap stuff to the expensive stuff; I mean the same stuff at different stations. So don't just take the first thing you see.

Oakland (Blvd of the Allies): $2.83
Squirrel Hill (Beacon and Murray): $2.96
Regent Square (Braddock and W. Hutchinson, and the BP down the hill): $2.61.

I'm glad I bought groceries tonight; otherwise I would have had no reason to venture into Regent Square. Mind, I didn't need to fill up yet (tank was a bit over a quarter full), but knowing that prices will only go up in the short term and I'd need to do it soon, I figured that if I saw a good price I'd take it.

Yeah, I just called $2.61 a good price.

Under normal conditions I fill up about once a month, so maybe if I'm lucky the spike will come and go before I'm directly affected. Indirectly, of course, we'll all be affected; they can't raise fares for public transit quickly, but the price of just about anything you buy that has to get from somewhere else to the store is going to rise.

a missed opportunity

Tonight at the grocery store the person ahead of me in line was paying with food stamps. I know this not because I saw them (I don't generally pay attention to such things), but because the cashier wouldn't accept the stamps for one item she'd bought and was demanding money instead. The customer said it had been ok last time and asked for a manager. The manager told her no. The cashier and manager behaved appropriately (they can't change store policy), but this poor lady was standing there with even more people now aware that she was using food stamps (people had joined the line), which is presumably something she doesn't advertise.

And you know, it was a reasonable purchase; it wasn't something obviously abusive. The lady had one bag of groceries -- probably dinner for the next couple nights. (It's the last day of the month; I wonder if that's relevant. Probably. I'm guessing it meant she didn't have the $5.) If I'd been thinking, I would have told the cashier "add that to my order". It wouldn't have mattered to me and it obviously mattered to her.

But I didn't think of it quite in time, and when I did think of it I didn't jump on it before the lady had taken her remaining groceries and hurried off. I hesitated. I had a clear opportunity to perform a random act of kindness and I blew it. It's not yet as instinctive as it ought to be.