$3.47 Gas Just Arrived in Metro Detroit. So We Had One Question: How?
Gas for $3.47 a gallon.
With Metro Detroit drivers seeing prices hovering around $4 a gallon, that number will get your attention.
And apparently, that's the idea.
Freedom Fuel Network, the patriotic gas station network publicly praised by President Donald Trump, has opened its first Michigan location in Detroit at Harper Avenue and Cadieux Road.
The price for regular?
$3.47.
That's not a coincidence. The 47 is a reference to Trump being the 47th president.
Now that Freedom Fuel has landed in Metro Detroit, we got nosy.
Because cheap gas is great. But when one station is selling gas significantly cheaper than the stations across the street, there's another question worth asking.
How?
First, the $3.47 gas is real
Freedom Fuel started getting national attention this summer after about 25 stations in Pennsylvania and New Jersey began offering gas for $3.47 a gallon.
Trump promoted the stations on Truth Social, praising the retailer for lowering prices and encouraging others to follow.
The White House promoted Freedom Fuel too.
But here's an important distinction.
The White House says the federal government isn't subsidizing the gas and isn't operating Freedom Fuel.
Freedom Fuel describes itself as a privately owned network of independent gas stations that responded to Trump's call for lower prices.
Now they've expanded into Michigan.
The Detroit location opened this week at 17046 Harper Avenue.
CBS Detroit found regular gas there selling for $3.47 while three competing stations at the same intersection were around $4.09.
That's roughly 60 cents less per gallon.
Put 15 gallons in your vehicle and you're talking about roughly $9 in savings.
Not exactly pocket change.
But how are they doing it?
That's where this gets interesting.
Gas stations generally don't make enormous margins selling gasoline.
When Freedom Fuel first started offering $3.47 gas, industry experts questioned whether that price was sustainable.
One convenience store industry expert told the Associated Press that the stations were probably selling gasoline at a loss, essentially using cheap fuel as a way to bring customers onto the property.
That's not necessarily unusual.
Businesses use loss leaders all the time.
Get someone through the door with one cheap product and hopefully they'll buy something else while they're there.
Freedom Fuel says its strategy worked.
The company claims participating stations saw fuel sales increase by an average of more than 50 percent, with some locations more than doubling their volume.
But then another piece of this story appeared.
A federal lawsuit.
Nearly $4 million worth of gasoline
Mansfield Oil Company filed a federal lawsuit in Pennsylvania against fuel distributor KRSM Inc. and its president, Syed Kazmi.
The allegation is substantial.
Mansfield claims KRSM obtained approximately 1.1 million gallons of gasoline between May 21 and July 7 worth nearly $4 million and didn't pay for it.
According to the lawsuit, some of that gasoline was ultimately delivered to stations participating in the Freedom Fuel Network.
Mansfield goes even further.
The company alleges KRSM was able to sell some of that gasoline so cheaply because it hadn't paid Mansfield for the fuel.
That's a serious allegation.
It is also, at this point, an allegation.
KRSM disputes it.
An attorney representing KRSM has described the case as an accounting dispute involving fuel invoices the company says were incorrectly priced.
A federal judge has since ordered KRSM and Kazmi to maintain at least $2.75 million in a bank account while the case proceeds.
Nobody should confuse that with a finding of liability. The underlying lawsuit hasn't been decided.
And here's an important detail
Freedom Fuel Network itself isn't a defendant in that lawsuit.
Neither is the new Detroit station.
And we haven't found evidence showing that any of the gasoline involved in the Pennsylvania lawsuit ended up in the tanks at the Detroit location.
That's important because there's a big difference between saying:
"Some stations in this network allegedly received fuel involved in a payment dispute."
And saying:
"The cheap gas being sold in Detroit wasn't paid for."
We can document the first statement.
We cannot document the second.
At least not right now.
So who exactly is Freedom Fuel?
That's another part of this story that's getting attention nationally.
Freedom Fuel Network was formed in Delaware in June, shortly before Trump began publicly promoting it.
Public records and national reporting have connected the network to Randy Brown, a Baltimore Ravens assistant coach and former Republican mayor in New Jersey, and Yoni Gontownik, a former investment director at energy and commodities company Mercuria.
Companies connected to Syed Kazmi and his brother Shamikh have also operated a number of the original Freedom Fuel locations.
The White House has said the Trump administration isn't financially involved with the company.
Freedom Fuel says its mission is much simpler.
Lower gas prices.
Its website says the company responded to Trump's call for cheaper gasoline and says its participating stations have experienced major increases in sales.
Whatever you think about the politics, one part of the strategy is pretty easy to understand.
Put $3.47 on a giant sign while everybody else has $4-something posted across the street.
People are going to notice.
What about Westland?
This is where we're paying attention.
We couldn't verify a Freedom Fuel location operating in Westland.
The Detroit station appears to be the network's first Michigan location.
But Freedom Fuel isn't talking like a company that's finished expanding.
Its own website says the success of its original locations caused the network to expand and specifically announces that it is now "live in Detroit."
That puts this story considerably closer to Westland than it was a few weeks ago.
Westland has plenty of gas stations competing along Ford Road, Wayne Road, Newburgh, Merriman and Middlebelt.
If somebody suddenly hung a Freedom Fuel sign in front of one of them and dropped regular to $3.47, we suspect people would notice pretty quickly.
Would you fill up there?
At 60 cents less per gallon, plenty of people probably wouldn't care what color the sign was.
Here's what we know
Freedom Fuel's $3.47 gasoline isn't an internet rumor.
It's being sold right now in Detroit.
Trump really did promote the network.
The White House really did promote it.
The company really is expanding.
And there really is a federal lawsuit alleging that a distributor obtained nearly $4 million worth of gasoline without paying for it, some of which was delivered to participating Freedom Fuel stations.
But the company behind Freedom Fuel isn't being sued in that case.
The Detroit station isn't named in the case.
And there's currently no evidence we've found connecting the gasoline being sold at the new Detroit location to the disputed gasoline in Pennsylvania.
That's the receipt.
Everything beyond that needs more digging.
And with Freedom Fuel officially entering Michigan, we'll be watching to see where that red, white and blue eagle shows up next.
Especially if it lands in Westland.
