Photo courtesy of Pixabay
Image by andreas160578 from Pixabay
Filling the tank in Alexandria got more expensive over the weekend.
Drivers in the Virginia side of the Washington metro area paid an average of $4.20 for a gallon of regular gas on Sept. 13, according to AAA — up about 17 cents from a week earlier and nearly $1.17 more than the same day a year ago, when the area average sat just above $3. That makes Northern Virginia the most expensive corner of the state. The statewide average was $4.14, and the national average was $4.31.
Diesel drivers fared worse. The area average hit $6.19 a gallon Sept. 13, the highest AAA has ever recorded for this market.
Northern Virginia almost always runs above the rest of the Commonwealth, and part of the reason is local. In addition to state and federal fuel taxes, distributors selling in Alexandria pay a regional Motor Vehicle Fuels Sales Tax administered by the Northern Virginia Transportation Commission, levied for fiscal 2027 at 9.6 cents per gallon of gasoline. The money helps fund Metro capital costs and the Virginia Railway Express. The City of Alexandria maintains an explainer on how the tax works.
Here is how to pay less.
Check prices before you drive
Station-to-station spreads in Alexandria routinely run 30 to 50 cents a gallon, which is more than most drivers will save through any single rewards program. GasBuddy maintains a crowd-sourced list of Alexandria stations sorted by price. AAA's fuel price map tracks county and metro averages daily, and Waze and Google Maps both surface nearby prices.
As of Monday morning, the three lowest prices GasBuddy users reported in Alexandria were all the same — $3.99 a gallon, or roughly 21 cents below the area average:
- Exxon, 2838 Duke St.
- Liberty, 4368 King St.
- Liberty, 5412 Duke St.
A fourth station, the Liberty at 725 N. Washington St. in Old Town, was posting $4.05.
There is a geography to that list. All three of the $3.99 stations sit along the Duke Street and King Street corridors in the West End, out past Quaker Lane, where drivers have more stations to choose from within a few blocks of one another. The Old Town listing was the priciest of the four. Alexandria drivers have long traded the same advice — fill up on the way in from the West End — and Monday morning's numbers were consistent with it.
Those numbers come from drivers reporting what they see at the pump, so they shift through the day and some listings are hours old. Check before committing to a detour.
Warehouse clubs
Costco's Mount Vernon warehouse at 7940 Richmond Highway sells Kirkland Signature gasoline at pumps open 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. weekdays, 6 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. Saturdays and 6 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Sundays. Membership is required, though Costco allows fuel purchases with a Costco Shop Card. Lines are shortest midweek and in the last hour before close.
BJ's Wholesale Club runs a fuel-saver promotion that stacks: each eligible item bought in-club or online earns 10 cents a gallon off a fill-up within 30 days, capped at 40 gallons or $99. Alexandria's BJ's at 101 S. Van Dorn St. does not have pumps, so the nearest BJ's Gas is in Fairfax.
Grocery fuel points
Two chains most Alexandria households already shop can cut the per-gallon price meaningfully.
Harris Teeter awards one fuel point per dollar spent with a VIC card, 50 points per non-federally funded prescription and double points on gift card purchases. Every 100 points is worth 10 cents off a gallon, up to 1,000 points — a full dollar — on a single fill-up of up to 35 gallons. Points can be redeemed at Harris Teeter fuel centers and at participating BP and Amoco stations, which matters here because Alexandria has BP stations but no Harris Teeter fuel center. VIC cardholders also get 3 cents a gallon off at Harris Teeter fuel centers with no points at all. One catch: points earned in a given month expire at the end of the following month, and anything under 100 points is worthless.
Giant Food works similarly, at one gas rewards point per dollar and 10 cents a gallon per 100 points, redeemable at Giant fuel stations and participating Shell locations. Giant caps savings at $1.50 a gallon, and shoppers who link a Shell Fuel Rewards account to their Giant account can stack the two programs for additional cents off.
Pump loyalty programs
Shell's Fuel Rewards, Exxon Mobil Rewards+ and bp Earnify are all free and all offer tiered per-gallon discounts that grow with how often a driver fills up at that brand. They are worth signing up for if a particular station is already on the commute, and not worth driving across town for.
The unglamorous stuff
Several Alexandria stations post a lower cash price than credit price, sometimes a dime or more — worth a look at the sign before pulling in.
And unless the owner's manual requires premium, regular is fine. AAA's own research on premium fuel found no benefit for vehicles designed to run on regular. In this market, premium is running roughly 89 cents a gallon above regular, which on a 15-gallon tank is more than $13 a fill.
