Urban Legend about Gas, OPEC, etc

I can't believe that anyone really thinks this would work.

I'll make an analogy that lowers the scale, and shows why it won't work. Let's say you live in a small town, and you love corn. There are two farms in your town that sell corn, and they are run by Joe, and Bill. They supply enough corn for the entire town. One day, Bill does something that ticks everyone off, so everyone in town decides not to buy corn from Bill. Everyone rushes over to Joe's farm, and buys corn from him, thinking that it will force Bill to close up his farm.

But, what really happens? Joe sells out of corn in one day, so he calls Bill, and buys a bunch of corn from him. The next day, everyone shows up at Joe's farm, and buys all of his corn. Eventually, the price of corn goes up, because Joe now has the added expense of having to buy corn from Bill, and transport it to his farm.

The exact same thing would happen with the oil scenario. Let's say that it worked, and no one in America bought gas from Exxon or Mobil. Eventually, the other gas stations would run out of gas, and would have to get their gas from somewhere...and they'd look around to see who has some gas to sell them..and they'll find that Exxon and Mobil have a stockpile. So, you'll end up buying gas from Exxon and Mobil anyway.

Oh...and to make things more interesting...How exactly do you avoid buying gas from Exxon or Mobil? Do you simply not go to a station with an Exxon or Mobil sign? You need to realize that the sign on the gas station isn't always (or even often) an indicator of where the gas in the tanks there came from.