This Tennessee Gas Station Accidentally Sold Fuel for $0.45 per Gallon

Currently, the average U.S. price for a gallon of gasoline is over $4. However, one gas station in Chattanooga, TN accidentally gave customers a 90% discount, charging them only $0.45 a gallon.

In a report by Yahoo News, one customer noticed that the price of gas was significantly much lower than usual. After pumping 12 gallons of premium gas into his wife’s car, Chattanooga local Henry DeHart realized that the grand total came out to only $5.64.

DeHart proceeded to show the gas station’s owner his receipt, which threw the man into a panic. “He ran back around the counter [and] started poking at his screen and then turned green. Nobody had told him in the last 5 hours,” DeHart said.

While a lot of customers that day were happy to get a breather from the inflated gas prices, the station’s owner felt the exact opposite.

“There’s no telling how much money he lost today. He was on the verge of tears,” said DeHart.

According to the National Association of Convenience Stores, gas station owners receive very small profits from the sale of fuel, which ranges between $0.10 to $0.15 cents per gallon. The rise in gas prices has directly affected many gas station owners, resulting in customers being less likely to purchase in-store snacks and drinks, which are more profitable than fuel.

“What I find most frustrating about this is that this man … with the guts to own a small business would get screwed over by people for half of [the] day,” DeHart said.

“How many people this morning thought, ‘it’s my lucky day,’ while this man was getting taken to the cleaners?” he added.

DeHart said he paid the gas station owner what he truly owed for the gasoline and hopes everyone else who purchased gas at the lowered rate will do the same.