GasBuddy said the national average gas price dropped below $4 per gallon for the first time since early August, a sign that fuel costs are easing after months of pressure. For drivers and small businesses that depend on fuel, the shift trims a little off every fill-up and every delivery run.
Celeste Ontiveros, a Tulare native living in Southern California, said it cost her $75 to fill her Chevy Malibu when gas was at its highest. “Now that I'm seeing that the gas prices, you know, you can make it down here a little bit better and easier,” she said.
Tulare and Fresno prices
Quick Fill in Tulare had the cheapest gas in the Visalia-Tulare area at $4.69 per gallon for regular, while Fresno prices fell by 11 cents per gallon in the last week and averaged $5.54 a gallon. Last month, GasBuddy reported that the highest average price for a gallon of regular in Visalia reached $6.36, a gap that shows how uneven the relief has been across nearby markets.
Carina Gomez, CEO of Tacos San Marcos, said lower gas prices feed through to sales. “Our sales always do go up a little bit when gas prices go down,” she said.
Tacos San Marcos costs
Carina Gomez also said Tacos San Marcos increased its pricing at the beginning of the year because of the price increase in gas. “We did increase our pricing at the beginning of this year because of the price increase in gas. Vegetables and meat, everything is expensive, because everything needs transportation to get to us,” she said.
$30 to run a single generator for 8 to 9 hours is another cost the business has to absorb, and Gomez said that burden multiplies when more trucks are working. “You just multiply that by 6. If all the food trucks are working on the same day, it just gets expensive,” she said.
GasBuddy and cooler weather
GasBuddy said the drop in gas and diesel prices fits a seasonal shift as demand fades with cooler weather. That gives fuel-sensitive operators some room to breathe, but the size of the break still depends on how long the seasonal slowdown keeps pressure off prices.
For Ontiveros, the change is simpler: the same commute costs less than it did at the peak, and for Gomez it means fuel is no longer adding quite as much strain to food truck pricing, generator use, and supply runs. The next test is whether the lower average holds as weather continues to cool.
