How do you like that?!

So, I go to the gas station today. ALL the regular unleaded pumps say out of order. Except two, so I pull up by one, it is locked. There is a sign, "last delivery of regular unleaded 01/30/09." okay...so I spend the $2.16 instead of the $2.04 per gallon. And I'm mad, but whatever I'm thinking, they ran out. Not unlike the commissary always out of chicken breasts, skim milk, whatever I need. I get to work and mention it to a coworker. She says, "you don't read your updates? That's just it. I DO read everything I get in community email, on the garrison website, etc. So, I google it. Here is what I found:

AAFES supply of regular unleaded gas to end in ’09
By Matt Millham, Stars and StripesEuropean edition,
Wednesday-Thursday, December 31,2008-January 1,2009 ***we were on leave! and so were a ton of other Soldiers and families!*****
Esso, the lone supplier of fuels to the Army and Air Force Exchange Service in Germany, has announced that it will stop supplying regular unleaded gasoline to the exchange after the New Year, according to AAFES.
Midgrade — also known as super — will become the cheapest gas available to Americans in the country.
For many locales where U.S. troops are based, the decision will be felt almost immediately.
"Esso has announced that on January 1, 2009, they will stop delivering Unleaded Regular Gasoline to AAFES facilities throughout Germany," according to an AAFES news release issued Tuesday.
AAFES stations in Mannheim, Ramstein, Sembach, Baumholder, Kaiserslautern and Landstuhl will continue to receive deliveries until supplies are exhausted, the release stated.
"Upon exhaustion of Unleaded Regular Gasoline, AAFES facilities will only carry Super and Super Plus unleaded fuels," according to AAFES.
In the U.S., midgrade gas typically costs about 13 cents more per gallon than regular, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, which tracks prices weekly. AAFES prices in Germany are generally — though not always — a reflection of U.S. prices.
Motorists in Germany soon won’t be able to find regular gas off base either. Germans have already seen regular pulled from the pumps at some locations, and elsewhere prices for regular gas have been hiked up to match the price of midgrade.
Officials from Esso, based in Hamburg, Germany, could not be reached Tuesday for comment on the decision. Consumer groups, however, have decried the change.
"We at the German Automobile Club are not happy at all about the fact that regular gas is taken from the market," said Maximilian Maurer, a spokesman for German auto club ADAC. "There are still millions of older cars in Germany that could use regular gas without any problems, but instead the car owners are forced to gas up their cars with super gas or pay the same money for regular gas that one has to pay for super."
There were no changes to German law that required fuel companies to phase out regular gas, Maurer said. Higher grades of gas are no more environmentally friendly than regular, he said, but super gas is better for certain newer engines, he said. "That is all."

GREAT! thanks. and yeah, I know it's only $.12 per gallon, but maybe take the damn sign down so we don't have to SEE WHAT WE HAVE NO CHOICE BUT TO PAY!