I’m in the greater Boston area. We have at least 3 gas stations with full service available within 2 miles of our house, all smaller independent stations. I assumed it was like this in most urban areas, perhaps not a great assumption.
Fill up in cash so don’t know how much it’ll take; not so much now but during the pandemic when gas was much cheaper (< $2) that could be another ½ gallon after auto-shutoff. Paying in cash saves up to 10¢/gallon depending upon the station’s posted cash/card prices.
NJ resident here. I’ve had my share of gas cap lights go on, but no significant spills.
It’s definitely a bonus to have full service when the weather sucks, and it helps that I usually fill up at my local 2 pump station. One guy, 4 cars max, you aren’t waiting that long to get service. Other, busier, places may have 1 guy running 4 pumps, that’s 8 cars to keep track of, and when you’re done, you sit and wait for him to finish with everyone else.
I live in the southeast. I haven’t seen a full-service gas station in decades. Certainly not since the 80’s-if then. I am very surprised that outside of mandate states like NJ and OR, there are any in the country. Boston still has them?
That, I suspect, is a key part of the difference. Most, if not all, of the gas stations in this area are franchisees for a chain – either with one of the big oil companies (BP, Shell, Mobil, etc.), or a regional brand (Thorntons, QuikTrip, etc.).
I would not be surprised if there are still some independent gas stations in the area, but I haven’t seen one in years.
I’ve never ridden a motorcycle to NJ, but ridden in OR plenty of times and I always filled myself. I wouldn’t want someone else to fill.
Now in our car, it’s always a shock for that first stop to refuel in OR. However, there are more and more places that don’t have an attendant that it’s more like being in other states. On a recent trip, we stopped in Hood River and fueled our car ourselves.
Not to speak specifically of Chicago, but you may be fueling at an independent station without even knowing. When I was in the business, I owned four stations. All the gas and diesel I sold came from BigOilCo, but it was my company name on the stores. Eventually, I branded with BigOilCo, which meant that they put up all new signage and dispensers and I agreed to only sell their product. I still made all decisions on pricing, just split some of the profit with them. Anyone seeing the stations would think they were BigOilCo, not independent. I will admit that’s much less common now.
That makes sense. When I said that there are few, if any, “independent stations” around here, I was also implying “not primarily branded as a specific oil company on the store,” and should have been more specific about that.
I know that many of of the “branded” gas stations in this area are franchisees/independently owned, but as you note, they clearly have an arrangement to exclusively work with one oil company/distributor. (The station that’s three blocks away from me has changed over from a Phillips 66 station, to a Valero station, to a Clark station, in the past 15 years, all without a change in ownership.)
The quick turnover is really popular now, bidding wars I suppose. Some areas you even see it with regional/national convenience store chains like 7-11, Loaf n Jug (Kroger), and Holiday.
I suspect the major defining factor is the age of the stations in question. The ones around here that stayed full service were all pretty old, and I suspect the people who owned them did a cost/benefit analysis on replacing the old pumps with new ones that have card readers on them, vs. hiring a guy to do the pumping and collect payment.
At some point, they all reach a limit on their lifetime, and have to either upgrade pumps that are at the end of their operational lifetime, and as such, become self-serve, or just close up shop if the money doesn’t add up the right way.
Overfilling when trying to “round up” the price risks more than just spillage, which is probably rare. But overfilling the gas tank can cause expensive problems – and back in the old days when stations were mostly full-service, “rounding up” with a bit more gas after the nozzle clicks off was a common practice.
Card readers at the pump aren’t essential to self-service. For many years after self-serve became common, you had to go into the store to pay for your gas. It became such an ingrained habit that I still do it, for no particularly good reason. The vast majority of stations here let you pump your gas first, then pay for it. Only a few have started to impose the obnoxious pre-pay regime, which I hate. The one time I had to do it, the sun was glaring on the screen that was supposed to be telling me what to do, and I couldn’t see a damn thing. When I finally managed to shade the screen so I could see something, what I saw was “Transaction Cancelled” with no explanation. Fuck that shit. I only go to stations now that haven’t jumped on the “pre-pay only, because we think you’re probably a crook” bandwagon.
I’m the opposite. I’ll drive away from a pump that doesn’t allow me to pay without going inside (or I did, before switching to electric). Even including times when I routinely bought gas, I haven’t been inside a gas station for at least 10 years.
There’s a difference between having the option to pay at the pump, and having to pre-pay, either at the pump or inside. All the stations I go to allow you to pay at the pump if you want after you fill up, but they don’t require a pre-pay CC authorization.
I usually went to safeway (we got discounts) and the routine was 1) enter your phone number (to get the discount) and 2) then swipe your card, and then 3) pump. I remember pumps that allowed you to pump first and then pay, but I thought they were long gone. I gather they still exist.
All the gas stations I know of require pre-payment, but they allow pre-payment by card at the pump, or pre-payment by card or cash to the cashier inside.
It is one of my little idiosyncrasies that I have never chosen to pay for gas in any way but cash. I pay most of my bills electronically, and a few with a paper check, and I pay cash for small purchases like a loaf of bread and debit card for anything more. But I still pay plain-old cash for gas.
I am 41 years old.
I have (literally) never, ever seen one.
You missed them. Full service stations were the norm until the Arab oil embargo of 1973. Self-serve stations were unheard-of, or nearly so. After that, self-serve stations began to appear. It seems they were popular enough that they became the norm.
The early ones were mixed: Some self-serve pumps and some full-serve pumps. Commonly, the self-serve prices were cheaper. At the full-serve pumps, they not only filled your tank, they also washed your windshield, and checked your oil and water. But I guess the cheaper price for the self-serve won the day.
Obligatory scene from Back to the Future, at 32 seconds:
I’ve been in Oregon over 25 years and not one overflow spill nor lost gas cap. On the other hand, I worked in gas stations while I was still in California and basically it was impossible to go one damned day without a spill on the islands, gas caps being left behind were common and some moron driving off with the gas nozzle in their car (which, since we didn’t have breakaways meant a pump being down for a minimum of two or three days until it got fixed) happened at least once every couple months. I hope we never have self serve gas here but it looks like the morons are winning. Shit.