Under normal conditions, favorable connections with Slovenia and
Austria allow residents of the Italian region of Friuli Venezia Giulia to take advantage
of the different market conditions abroad. However, due to pandemic-issued
border closures, the privilege of unbounded mobility was compromised. This contribution
aims to understand the implications of a temporary border closure on the
fuel retailing market by exploring quantitative data on fuel purchases made available
by diverse public entities. In the first year of the pandemic, despite a national
situation in which a strong contraction in sales of fuels was recorded, the Friuli
Venezia Giulia region behaved significantly differently from Italy, especially in its
border provinces of Gorizia and Trieste. The return to an open border has triggered
strong international competition. As such, the results advance our knowledge of
the impact of customer (im)mobility on the economy of a borderland.
