There isn’t usually a card premium around here. And I haven’t seen a cash only station since I don’t remember when.
If you’re going to pay cash, you have to go into the station, probably stand in line for a while because they sell a lot of other stuff (including lottery tickets which seem to take most people a while to buy), guess how much gas your car will take, and pay them to approve that much on the pump. The pump will cut out at that amount, even if the car’s not full. If you paid for more than the car takes, you have to go back into the station (and stand in line again) to get your change. If you pay with a card, you usually don’t have to go into the station at all; though sometimes the machine won’t print your receipt, and then if you want one you have to go inside to get it.
I’m currently a medical courier and for me a short run is three hours round-trip. I top off my tank at 3/4 full because I’m on a lot of back roads with no gas stations. On my days off I can get lax and fill up at 1/4 tank.
Since I’m in the car so much I split my time between listening to audiobooks, satellite radio, and podcasts. I’m working my way through a bunch of Gilbert Gottfried right now but also enjoy Lexicon Valley and The Constant.
I do a relatively long journey (say 200 miles round trip) every 3 or 4 weeks and will fill up before them, if I get down ot about 1/8th full before then I will fill up but that is less frequent. Most of my longer trips are either in rural areas where fuel is more expensive or I am traveling on a motorway where fuel is a silly price (about $1.50 /gallon more) and filling up beforehand saves me googling whee I can get fuel for a reasonable price somewhere on/near my route.
Here in the UK pump jockies dies out 50 years ago and card payment surcharges were banned in 2018 (and rare before)
Forget it, Jake. It’s ChinatownNew Jersey. There isn’t an inside, except for a small booth for the PJs, not even any bathroom, including a PortaJohn for public use. Of course most customers never get out of their car since it’s illegal to pump your own. Sometimes at the end of the island they’ll have a pallet of something for sale; typically either gallons of windshield washer fluid or cases(!) of water bottles but that’s all you can buy other than gasoline. (I’m not sure when the Google Maps picture is from but I don’t even think that soda machine is there any more)
It’s becoming more and more unlikely to find a gas station without some sort of store. I have a friend who owned multiple gas stations. He explained how extremely small his profit margin was. Like a penny a gallon. The store was the only way to make money.
But in those stores it’s not possible to pay for gas. Has to be done at the pump with the PJ.
Well, the question was which choice is the “closest” to your pronunciation. Yours seems closest to the “feb-you-air-ee” choice, except for the r-colored schwa in place of the /u/, so I would have chosen that one. (Of course I didn’t use IPA in the poll because many people freak out when they see IPA and act like reading it requires completing a course in advanced quantum physics.)
Why no choice for none of the above? I dislike both of those teams. Oilers play dirty. Florida wins too often, I am not watching. Sure hope next year has some fresh faces.
I only use straws for drinks in the car. If I’m sitting in a restaurant & they bring them I will decline if possible & if they’re dropped on the table wrapped in paper, I place it, still wrapped at the end of the table; hopefully for them to pick up & give to another patron.
When I’m in the car I know the paper ones are better for the planet but I prefer the feel of the plastic ones. Either way, I’m using what they give me.
I remember working at a place that gave us these fancy metal cups with lids & metal straws; kind of the precursor to the modern Stanley/Yeti cups. Let’s just say that someone found out the hard way they couldn’t be used for hot beverages as the metal straws absorbed heat from the tea & burned her lips. I’m also not keeping one in the car where it either won’t get cleaned or I’ll take it in to clean it & then not take it back out to the car.
I use straws at restaurants, and also, when I’m walking with a cup of hot coffee. And I prefer plastic enough that when they started to be hard to get, I bought some of my own, and carry a few straws in a plastic straw-holder in my backpack.
And I’m not convinced that paper straws are much better for the planet, so long as you make sure your plastic straw goes into the trash to be buried in a landfill, and doesn’t end up blowing into a body of water.
Disposable anything is environmentally problematic, but straws are very small and don’t contain a lot of material.
I use those silicone straws. Do they count as plastic? I’ve also liked the pasta straws you used to see, and I’ve encountered compostable bio-plastic and bamboo.