New York, NY – The TEXT messge that you have recived in last few days not to buy gas, stems from a A St. John’s University business student that started a national grass-roots movement to tell big oil companies to take their gas and shove it – by urging motorists to not buy gas tomorrow to protest outrageous prices.
Join our WhatsApp groupSubscribe to our Daily Roundup Email
Bryan Martorana, 18, says he just can’t afford to shell out more than $40 a week to fill his 2001 Ford Mustang’s tank, so he hopes to send a message. “If it doesn’t immediately trigger a response in the price, I think in the future, it can make bigger things happen,” the Copiague, L.I., resident said of a campaign called Don’t Pump Gas on May 15th.
“I invited all of my friends [through Facebook.com], and [they invited] their friends,” he said. “It created a chain.”
More than 10,000 people have visited his Web page. Campaign organizers hope to cost oil firms $3 billion in sales. [nypost]
6:21 PM – Good point. Maybe if everyone boycotted Exxon for an entire month, then Shell the next month, and so on, then start the cycle again. Anyone a business major or economist? Would a month make a difference? If not, how long of a boycott would make a difference? Imagine if we got the entire country to do this? How would it effect the oil company’s stocks?
I agree that this wont work but boycotting a specific company might work.
Totally agree with first post, it wont make a real diffrence, exxon-mobil wil “not” go out of business period not as long as we buy it the next day or in 2-3 days later. But there is a better idea of how to hurt the oil companies without hurting yourself is: not to buy from exxonmobil for about a month just buy another brand there is allways more then one station at a particular intersection so when we stop bying at Exxon they will have to come down with the price in order to get you back and soon the rest will follow, thats how we can fight them.
Whatever it takes to lower the price of gas, we should go for it. It’s worth a try.
Don’t Pump Gas on May 15
Status: False / Pointless
Comments: Wrong, wrong, wrong.
1. There was no nationwide “gas out” in 1997. There was one in 1999, but it didn’t cause gas prices to drop 30 cents per gallon overnight. In fact, it didn’t cause them to drop at all. Despite the popularity of the email campaign, the event itself attracted scant participation and was completely ineffectual.
2. There are over 205 million Internet users in the United States, far more than the 73 million claimed.
3. If, say, a hundred million drivers refused en masse to fill up their tanks on May 15, the total of what they didn’t spend could amount to as much as $3 billion. However, it doesn’t follow that such a boycott would actually decrease oil companies’ revenues by that amount, given that the average sales of gasoline across the entire U.S. is under $1 billion per day in the first place.
4. Whether the total impact was a half-billion, 3 billion, or 10 billion dollars, the sales missed due to a one-day consumer boycott wouldn’t hurt the oil companies one bit. Think about it. Every single American who doesn’t buy gas on Tuesday is still going to have to fill up their tank on Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday, making up for Tuesday’s losses. Sales for the whole week would be normal, or very close to it.
A meaningful boycott would entail participants actually consuming less fuel — and doing so in a sustained, disciplined fashion over a defined period of time — not just choosing to wait a day or two before filling up as usual.