I think we're both just painting things a little broadly. Both have some outliers. I had never realized that the Emerald Park Coop was cheaper, and I don't get by the Esso on Victoria and Albert that often in recent years to have actually had the chance to notice that. I do know that the south Albert Esso is one of the last to lower and first to raise, too. It and the White City Esso are the two twenty-four hour ones, so if I'm for some reason dying for Esso fuel, I'd go out east first. Yes, I'm silly.
My comparisons are drawn mostly off of the north Albert Essos, the Arcola Esso, and the Winnipeg Street Coop. I drive by at least three of those daily, and I usually see the Winnipeg Coop going up first. In fact, as soon as I see it going up, I know it's time to fill up, but I'll have sufficient time to do so. I don't have a lot of use for the Coops anyhow, with their small town Saskatchewan hours. If you close your station by 9 or 10 at night, chances are you'll never, ever see me fill there, and I haven't bought a drop of fuel from a Coop in over two years.
The Arcola Esso does pretty well. Sometimes, it lowers the price before the Shell next door, though that's only about 10% of the time. In fact, right now, they're half a cent cheaper per litre than the Shell across the street, and have been that way for two days, which is a major shock.
Lately, I've found the eastern Regina stations and the ones in the way northwest to do about the best for fuel prices. The south end isn't so hot, and the north end has its good and bad moments. Downtown options are limited to the cab company's shaky product and the Esso you noted, who will raise the price at a moment's notice.
Sir1900 mentioned the in store experience, too. He's quite right. Esso doesn't seem to have embraced the convenience store business as much as some places have. For a convenience store (and points offerings along with convenience store items), it's hard to beat Petro-Canada. I can get more Petro-Points sometimes from four bottles of pop than I can from a tank of premium.
Esso needs to upgrade their points system. While for straight purchases, it's comparable to Petro-Canada, the latter has far more bonus offers and far more options when redeeming.