I more often write about petrol prices when they’re volatile and hit new highs. But this time, the question is why are all the service stations in Abingdon charging almost exactly the same price for unleaded?

For years, a certain supermarket, let us call them T, in Abingdon was the place to go for the cheapest petrol in town. That’s no longer the case. A recent snapshot (February 21st, 2025) reveals a surprising uniformity.

T now matches the Vineyard petrol station, which used to be more expensive.

And T is 0.2p per litre more expensive than the Esso station on Marcham Road, a station that used to be pricier.

T in Abingdon appears to be the most expensive T petrol station in Oxfordshire. Here’s a comparison:

Unleaded Prices on 21/2/2025:
T Abingdon: 141.9p
T Banbury: 137.9p
T Bicester: 137.9p
T Didcot: 137.9p
T Oxford: 139.9p

A look at Didcot, a town with more supermarkets and other petrol stations, reveals a wider price range – from 136.9p to 142.9p. T in Didcot prices its unleaded at 137.9p. Are T using a location-based pricing strategy? Instead of setting uniform prices across the county, and undercutting local competitors as they have done in the past, they now seem to be aligning their prices with the local market.

Figures come from https://www.petrolprices.com/.

The Abingdon Homebase store is set to close within the next few days. There is up to 90% off and at least 50% off what remains. Big areas are now empty.

Homebase went into administration last year. CDS Superstores, which owns The Range and Wilko, bought the brand and 71 stores for £25.6 million, but Abingdon was not included in the deal.

It is unclear what will happen to the store after closure. When the Fairacres Phase 2 development was completed in 2021, the Homebase store combined three of the proposed units into one.

For the last three years, a plant and flower seller has used the gated space between Richard Coxeter Ltd and Coxeter House.

Recently, signs have invited people to take what’s left for free — plants, pots, and fixtures and fittings.

Most of the better plants have already gone.

Do you remember how, before the current business, Richard Matthews used the same plot every Monday, Friday, and Saturday as an outdoor flower stall. That was for about 40 years. Their main shop is in Sutton Courtenay.

A new juice bar, opened on February 1st, 2025, at Coxeters Yard, bringing a healthy addition to the town’s bars. It may be Abingdon’s first specialist juice bar (although someone out there may remember others), and is part of tradition of juicing dating back decades, and centuries.

Juice bars have been around since the 1970s, and increasingly popular since the 2010s, emphasising healthy ingredients, detox benefits, and fun flavours. The new bar continues this trend with juice mixes like Remedy, Health Kick, and Tropical Blast, alongside shots called Ginger or Turmeric and smoothies with names like Strawberry Split and Cacao Bomb.

Juicing may seem like a modern health trend, but its roots go back to at least 150 B.C. The Essenes, a Jewish sect known for writing the Dead Sea Scrolls, mashed pomegranates and figs for their health benefits. That may have been called Essenic Elixir.