97 Cents a Gallon! Georgia Gas War Sparks Pump Frenzy and Police Shutdown. Could It Ever Happen in The Bahamas?

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97 Cents a Gallon! Georgia Gas War Sparks Pump Frenzy and Police Shutdown. Could It Ever Happen in The Bahamas?

October 21, 2026

Imagine pulling up to the pump and seeing gas for less than a dollar a gallon. For drivers in Powder Springs, Georgia, a small city in Cobb County outside Atlanta, that was no dream. Two gas stations that sit side by side on Marietta Street went to war over prices this month, and regular gas dropped as low as 97 cents a gallon.

The story was first reported by WSB-TV Channel 2 in Atlanta, whose reporter Tom Jones was at the scene. The station published its story on October 13, 2026.

How the price war started

According to WSB-TV, the fight was between an Amoco station and the Sunoco right next door. An Amoco manager said the station’s policy is to keep its price five cents below its neighbor’s. Sunoco kept matching. Each time one side cut, the other followed, and the numbers on the signs kept falling.

One driver told WSB-TV the price kept dropping while she watched, sliding through $1.44 and $1.39 before it finally bottomed out at 97 cents. When the reporter asked how long the deal would last, a manager answered that he did not know and that he would have to ask the other station.

“It feels like Christmas”

Word spread fast. Drivers phoned their family members to come down, and one shouted that it felt like Christmas. Driver Wartanna Haywood told WSB-TV she normally spends about $90 to fill her truck. She paid $1.14 a gallon and filled up for about $15.

Traffic nightmare and a police shutdown

The bargain quickly turned into gridlock. WSB-TV reported that Powder Springs police arrived and ordered drivers who were lined up in the streets to leave, then blocked the entrances to the pumps at both stations. Once the traffic thinned out, police let customers back in.

Police said traffic was out of control, and that is why they stopped cars from getting in. They plan to ask the two stations to coordinate with them if they decide to start another gas war. The price war has since ended, and prices are back up. Car news site The Drive reported that both stations had reset their prices by the next day.

To put the deal in perspective, Georgia’s average price for regular gas was $3.77 a gallon and the US national average was $4.33 in mid-October, according to AAA figures cited in a WSB report shared by WJCL.

Meanwhile, back home in The Bahamas

Bahamian drivers can only dream about 97-cent gas right now. Gas in New Providence is selling for about $7.49 to $7.56 a gallon, and diesel is close to $10, according to reports this week. Vasco Bastian, vice president of the Bahamas Petroleum Dealers Association, told The Nassau Guardian it is the worst he has seen fuel prices in two decades.

A fuel price breakdown for New Providence as of October 20, given to The Tribune by veteran dealer Bernard “Porky” Dorsett, shows an average gas price of $7.52 a gallon. Government taxes make up $1.89 of that, about 25 percent. The retailer keeps 76 cents a gallon and the wholesaler 33 cents.

That is a big reason a Georgia-style price war is hard to picture here. In The Bahamas, gasoline and diesel fall under the Price Control Act, and retail and wholesale margins are fixed per gallon by government regulation rather than set freely by each station. “When gas was $3 a gallon, I was making 76 cents. Gas is now $7 a gallon. I’m still making 76 cents,” Mr Dorsett told The Tribune. With that kind of fixed margin, a station has little room to slash prices to beat the station across the street.

Instead, the debate at home is over who should give up a share. Former Cabinet minister Leslie Miller has called for dealer margins to be cut until gas falls to $6.50 a gallon, while dealers say the Government should cut fuel taxes, including VAT. The Prime Minister’s press secretary, Keishla Adderley, said the Ministry of Finance has been looking at possible relief for consumers, but no decision has been announced.

And the wider Caribbean?

Fuel prices are a hot topic across the region too. Mr Dorsett pointed to Barbados as one Caribbean country that has offered fuel tax relief to its people, and said The Bahamas should not wait until businesses are in serious trouble before it acts.