The overnight price drop that lowered Fred Meyer fuel prices from $2.92 to $1.91 between Monday and Tuesday was a mistake, and the company is working to raise prices back to what they were before the drop, according to a Fred Meyer spokesperson.
“That huge price drop yesterday was a mistake and it was a mistake that come from our corporate office,” Fred Meyer spokesperson Melinda Merrill told the Empire Wednesday morning. She also noted that Store Director Jim Floyd, who told the Empire that the price drop was intentional on Tuesday, had no way to know that the price change was in fact a corporate error.
As it turns out, an employee in Fred Meyer’s corporate office sets gas prices using an algorithm. According to Merrill, the price was supposed to drop from $2.92 on Monday to $2.91 on Tuesday, but a typo on behalf of corporate staff changed a penny price drop to a dollar.
“That is obviously a very low price that we can’t maintain,” she said. “It was a dumb bad mistake, and it happened at a bad time given the time and all the conversation about fuel prices.”
Though Fred Meyer will restore its gas to the correct price, the low prices won’t be leaving as quickly as they came. Merrill said that the company will gradually raise its prices to avoid shocking customers. Today the price of gas will be raised to $2.11 per gallon.
At this point, Fred Meyer doesn’t have a set timeline for raising its fuel prices back to normal, Merrill said.
