I’m writing in response to Bradford Larkin’s comments entitled “Something wrong with this picture.” When reading it I discovered that I still have a certain pet following me around… it’s a pet peeve. I don’t plan on keeping it, but it apparently is still lingering about, and it’s called Dislike of Misrepresentation.
Mr. Larkin mentioned a certain gas station that always charged five cents more per gallon for gasoline back when he moved to the valley in 1978. If that was the case, then the same was true for all the other gas stations as well. The policy of the gas station Mr. Larkin clearly referred to was to have the price set at one cent lower than any other in town.
A larger Montana corporation had strength in numbers due to its multiple locations, and the chain would sometimes enter into a price war to try to establish itself in town, and the owner of the gas station referred to by Mr. Larkin would at some of these times set the gasoline sales price at a cent or more per gallon less than it had cost the station to buy. He thought the temporary loss of revenue would be made up for in the long run by keeping loyal customers.
I don’t know what happened, Mr. Larkin, to upset you so much that several decades later you are still perturbed at the owner. I’m sorry for whatever it was. He, like everyone else, has good qualities and bad, personality strengths and weaknesses. One of his good qualities is and was a strong work ethic… perhaps the strongest I have ever seen. When he bought that land, half it was a junkyard. It was quite a feat cleaning it up. It is less than attractive in its current condition, but oh, the memories!
I hope that piece of ground has a good future in which it will again be productive, and I hope it will have a new chapter as vibrant as the previous one. I also hope the Hamilton economy grows and thrives to help enable this. It seems the further away from Missoula one goes, the higher the prices and the lower the wages. Have you shopped in Darby lately or looked for a job there? How about Sula? There are economic reasons behind this. I have theories as to why, but I can’t say that I understand well enough to attempt an explanation.
I do know that the differences from town to town are not caused by greedy store owners who are gouging customers and employees.
Barbara Burnham Edmunds
Hamilton