Deandra Romanoff
ECON 545
May 25th, 2014

It is indeed very lucrative for potential owners to purchase gas stations in our current economic condition where gas prices are at sky high, especially in places where public transportation is scarce. On average, the whole United States have faced an increased in gas prices nearly 5 cents from March 21st, 2014 to April 4th, 2014 (Reuters, 2014). According to Reuters, Lundberg survey has shown that this increase in gas prices was caused by an increase in demand. In fact, the United States has been experiencing gas prices increasing since early February this year after gas prices saw a price fall in late 2013 (Reuters, 2014). Despite of the fact that gas prices and demand for gas is high, it makes sense for cousin Edgar to spend his money on purchasing gas stations because the facts suggest that he could gain a lot of profits by operating gas stations. However, there are other various factors that cousin Edgar must take into consideration before spending his money, such as the gas demand and supply, the price elasticity of both, the cost of gas production, as well as the future challenges that awaits him in the future. One thing that Edgar must know about what can affects demand is the availability of substitute product, which in this case the substitute product for gas would be the use of public transportation. In places where there is a good public transportation system like in San Francisco, the demand for gas could be more elastic compared to Los Angeles, because consumers have other alternatives of commuting. Currently, gasoline has an inelastic price elasticity of demand in Los Angeles, and even in the United States. However, that could change due to the current planning to build a subway line from Los Angeles downtown to the cities along the coastline. Besides that, Los Angeles has also increases its bike lanes