$3 gas doesn't stop the Wal-Mart shopper

Wal-Mart has repeatedly said in many recent month-end sales reports, and even quarterly earnings announcements, that the high cost of energy (read: gas prices) was a main cause for the sales slowdown in recent periods. I've heard this excuse from Wal-Mart many times just this year and it comes without any specific Department of Energy correlation to seasonal travel patterns, Department of Labor statistics, or even unemployment rates or inflation.

But in this source article it seems that $3/gallon gas prices are not denting consumer purchasing enthusiasm for fuel at all. Consumers are buying more and more gas this year, putting the summer of 2006 possibly on record as being the season in which more gas was purchased than at any other summer seasonal time in history. Plant this fact against the highest-priced gas the country has seen in a generation and something is amiss here. Can Wal-Mart continue say from now on that high gas prices are causing consumers to curb spending?

Wal-Mart could come back and say that consumers are spending more on gas this year than ever before simply because the price of gas is as high as its ever been (in a few decades, anyway). But -- Bzzttt -- that would be the wrong answer. The physical quantity of gasoline is measured in consumer barrels per day, not the actual barrel or gallon price. If Americans are consuming more barrels of oil this year than in any other recent year, and the price is averaging $2.90 to $3.10 per gallon nationwide, someone is driving a lot more and spending a lot more on driving than in recent history.

Perhaps consumers are spending so much on gas with their increased consumption appetites that there's less pocket change left over for Wal-Mart purchases? There's a more believable argument... I think.

Brian White has worked in various executive positions in technology and telecommunications and now focuses on editing and writing.