Local business competition

I'm sure many around the Falls have seen the new advertising coupons now found on the back of your grocery receipts from Super One. Coupons that give cents off at various local businesses. First of all I would like to thank Super One for their choice in this advertising venue. But more importantly I want to thank those local businesses that participate, especially the local gas stations (Freedom & Holiday) for giving a shot in the arm on gas prices! I realize those stations will not influence the world market but what they have done was to put back a sense of competition in what has been basically a controlled market. For awhile you could find a true savings with the Duty Free store giving their 5 cents off per gallon if you paid cash. However, if you noticed - recently that 5 cents just brought their price down to everyone else (That wasn't ALWAYS the case). Give them credit also for their 10 cent off Tuesday promotion each week. Now, with the grocery store coupons, local gas stations are forced to more closely manage their profit margins. Grocery store gas coupons have become very popular in larger cities. Many gas stations that don't advertise with coupons will accept them anyway. Some even accept them on certain days at double and some at triple face value (This is a hint for those station operators trying to figure out how they may want to tackle this new found competition). In saying this I don't want to leave out our other major grocer (Super Value). They have also helped make a dent in the local fuel market buy offering discount fuel for certain products purchased in their establishment. Both have directly affected local competition by in themselves - competing with each other. This is my point here. Competition is one of the things that have made our country great. American ingenuity and competition.