Cars and trucks were backed up three vehicles deep at the gas pumps on Monday afternoon at the City Market Fuel Center — a common sight since the station opened Dec. 9.

"It gets pretty congested," said Naomi Zwicker, a resident of McElmo Canyon who was filling her vehicle Monday afternoon for approximately $1.27 a gallon. "Everybody wants to take advantage of the bargain."

The recent opening of the fuel center has probably contributed to Cortez having some of the most competitive fuel prices in the Four Corners area.

Customers hailed the lower prices.

"It really helps," Zwicker said. "We made a trip to the Northwest a few weeks ago and it was $2 a gallon in Nevada."

She said, even 45 miles away in Durango, gas prices can’t compete with what Cortez’s City Market has to offer.

"It’s definitely bargain gas," Zwicker said.

At City Market’s corporate offices in Denver, officials said the new station’s success is just what they were hoping for.

"Our pricing strategy is to be competitive with the market," said Bernice Greaser, City Market director of supermarket petroleum.

"With the value card (a card available to City Market customers) they will get the value-card discount with the fuel. Right now it is 3 cents off the unleaded and 5 cents off the other grades of fuel."

Chris Jennings, manager of the Maverik convenience station on U.S. Highway 666 north of Cortez, said his station was directly affected by the opening of the City Market Fuel Center and has made adjustments to keep up.

"We’re just trying to compete," Jennings said.

Owner of Conoco Corners Barbara Boan said her store initially felt the impact of the new competition but did not make any changes in its fuel prices.

"We noticed it when they first opened," Boan said. "But now it’s back to where it was before."

Greaser said the low price is not just an introductory tactic.

"We’ll move according to where our cost is and also where the market is," Greaser said.

City Market has three existing fuel centers in Colorado including the one in Cortez, she said.

Montrose was the first station to open, followed by Orchard Mesa in October and then the local site opening on Dec. 9.

Greaser said City Market’s sister store, King Soopers, has seven sites in Colorado and nationally, the parent company, Kroeger, has 70 fuel stations.

City Market has plans to open two more stores in the next month, one in Alamosa and another in Grand Junction with other locations projected to open in the future.