Neighboring Georgia gas stations get into an all-out price war, dropping prices as low as 97 cents: 'Feels like Christmas'

A Sunoco and an Amoco located next to each other, on the same street, repeatedly lowered their prices to try to stay competitive until prices eventually dropped to as low as 97 cents, WSB-TV 2 reported.

“It feels like Christmas over here y’all. Y’all need to get down here,” one driver told the local news station.

Another driver, Wartanna Haywood, who usually pays $90 to fill up her truck said she paid $1.14 a gallon and it only cost her $15 to fill up.

“Yes. Look at God baby. Look at God,” she said.

Employees at the Amoco station told WSB-TV 2 that they had a policy of setting the price to 5 cents below whatever the Sunoco station was offering. The Sunoco station countered by setting its price to Amoco’s price. This continued back and forth — in a classic race to the bottom.

Eventually, the police had to come in and shut off traffic due to the high volume of people hoping to fill up. Once things calmed down, the pumps opened back up, and prices went back up again, per WSB-TV 2.

Why gas prices have gotten so high

Gas prices across the U.S. currently average $4.33 for regular unleaded gas, according to AAA. A year ago, the average price was $3.06.

After the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran in February 2026, Iran retaliated by closing the Strait of Hormuz. One quarter of all crude oil and petroleum passes through the Strait, along with 19% of liquefied natural gas.

With that much global fuel supply unavailable, the U.S. government has been scrambling to try to keep prices affordable — not just for gas, but for everyday items consumers buy that require gas and diesel to transport.

One way it has done that has been by pulling oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR). The SPR can currently hold up to 714 million barrels of crude oil — and for much of the late 2000s and early 2010s, it remained mostly steady and near full capacity.

In 2022, the U.S. chose to release 180 million barrels in an effort to control supply reductions due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Recently, in September 2026, the amount of oil dropped to less than 284 million barrels, according to Reuters.

With voters facing high prices, questions about how the government prioritizes affordability have been raised. For this reason, Republican candidates across the U.S. face a difficult situation in the midterms. Republicans currently control both the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate and want to retain control.

President Donald Trump has been dismissive of affordability as a problem, calling it “fake” at the Republican National Convention in September.