# it's a gas station, dammit!
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-gas-station-dammit/60629
**Category:** The BBQ Pit
**Created:** [April 3, 2001, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-gas-station-dammit/60629 "2001-04-03T13:56:09Z")
**Posts on this page:** 18
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Knighted\_Vorpal\_Sword](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knighted_Vorpal_Sword)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2001, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-gas-station-dammit/60629/1 "2001-04-03T13:56:09Z")
When I need to get gas, why do I have to spend time in line behind dweebs buying soda, chips, candy, phone cards, gum, ciggies, and air freshener? Can’t these jerks go to a store to buy this crap? IT’S A GAS STATION, NOT A FOOD STORE! I want to buy gas! YOU’RE HOLDING ME UP! Go buy your crap somewhere else, and leave me the hell alone!
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### Author:  [@bdgr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bdgr)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2001, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-gas-station-dammit/60629/2 "2001-04-03T14:48:39Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Knighted Vorpal Sword \*
> \*\*When I need to get gas, why do I have to spend time in line behind dweebs buying soda, chips, candy, phone cards, gum, ciggies, and air freshener? Can’t these jerks go to a store to buy this crap? IT’S A GAS STATION, NOT A FOOD STORE! I want to buy gas! YOU’RE HOLDING ME UP! Go buy your crap somewhere else, and leave me the hell alone! \*\*
The gas Station I worked at in college made its profit entirely off of that other crap. At times, we even sold gas at a loss just to get people in to buy all the stuff you mentioned. (there were several other conveniance stores in the area).
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### Author:  [@Oblio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oblio)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2001, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-gas-station-dammit/60629/3 "2001-04-03T15:09:12Z")
And DAMN lottery tickets !!!
::standing behind customer and overhearing … ::
Let’s see … Give me …
.
.
.
.
3 Lucky sevens …
.
.
.
Hmmmmmmm …
.
.
.
and 2 ‘I want to be a Jillionaire’ …
.
.
.
.
2 quick picks …
.
.
.
etc.
And then they try to pay with a credit card, debit, or check and have to argue with the clerk that they bought some that way last week. As if that is a valid excuse to break the rules against buying without cash (stupid as they are).
ARGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH !
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### Author:  [@Knighted\_Vorpal\_Sword](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knighted_Vorpal_Sword)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2001, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-gas-station-dammit/60629/4 "2001-04-03T15:21:06Z")
I bet gas stations could charge a premium for gas sold at a “gas only” facility - no standing on line waiting for people to decide if they want diet coke or diet pepsi.
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### Author:  [@Necros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Necros)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2001, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-gas-station-dammit/60629/5 "2001-04-03T15:48:57Z")
That’s why most of us pay at the pump, **KVS**.
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### Author:  [@thinksnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thinksnow)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2001, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-gas-station-dammit/60629/6 "2001-04-03T15:52:23Z")
[hijack]
It’s not a gas station, it’s legalized price fixing. What other business can adjust it’s prices, throughout town, in one afternoon, by **15%**? And peolpe do nothing but gripe a little.
On the way into work, gas was $1.34. That afternoon: $1.54. WTF?! They can raise prices on the _speculation_ of future price increases!
Total bullshit.
I get ~30 mpg and 'm pissed. I can’t imagine why others, who surely get worse milage, aren’t livid by now.
[/hijack]
Yeah, that waiting in line stuff sucks, which is why I only go to places I can pay at the pump.
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### Author:  [@Enderw24](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enderw24)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2001, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-gas-station-dammit/60629/7 "2001-04-03T15:58:57Z")
Um…no. I’d just go down the block to the cheaper place with doritos. Oh, don’t want to wait behind the guy buying his family groceries for the next month? There’s a handy new invention called the credit card. Little? Plastic? Comes in lots of different colors? Cash back with every purchase? Interest rates at 76%?
Oh yeah those…
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### Author:  [@Knighted\_Vorpal\_Sword](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knighted_Vorpal_Sword)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2001, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-gas-station-dammit/60629/8 "2001-04-03T16:36:50Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Necros \*
> \*\*That’s why most of us pay at the pump, **KVS**. \*\*
The problem is that I have to use a certain amount of scrip (a/k/a funny money) for my kids’ school during the year. Many local merchants accept the scrip, and give a certain percent back to the school. There is one gas station that accepts this scrip, and it also has the lowest prices in the area. (Besides, not all stations have pay at the pump.)
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### Author:  [@waxteeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/waxteeth)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2001, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-gas-station-dammit/60629/9 "2001-04-03T16:44:27Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Knighted Vorpal Sword \*
> \*\*IT’S A GAS STATION, NOT A FOOD STORE! I want to buy gas! YOU’RE HOLDING ME UP! \*\*
I think you’re wrong about that.
The ones I see normally have a sign that says food mart.
It sounds like you’re stopping at convience stores that sell gas.
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### Author:  [@schief2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/schief2)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2001, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-gas-station-dammit/60629/10 "2001-04-03T16:49:48Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by thinksnow \*
> [hijack]
> It’s not a gas station, it’s legalized price fixing. What other business can adjust it’s prices, throughout town, in one afternoon, by **15%**? And peolpe do nothing but gripe a little.
> On the way into work, gas was $1.34. That afternoon: $1.54. WTF?! They can raise prices on the _speculation_ of future price increases!
> Total bullshit.
> I get ~30 mpg and 'm pissed. I can’t imagine why others, who surely get worse milage, aren’t livid by now.
> [/hijack]
Can I get an amen to that?
One of the mega-pump gas stations here has huge billboards on the interstate at either end of town trumpeting their current unleaded gas price. Within literally a couple hours of a price change on these billboards, up or down, EVERY SINGLE gas station in this city (~100,000 people) will have adjusted their price to within a penny or two of what the “new” quasi-official price is.
I used to live by one of these billboards; I’d drive in and see the workers changing the price on it, and on the drive home a few hours later, every gas station would just “happen” to have raised their price 7 cents, or dropped it four, or whatever. It was especially obnoxious last summer, when suddenly the price of gas would just magically jump 25 cents everywhere at once for no reason.
You greedy, scum-sucking, price-colluding bastards! _shakes fist in rage_
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### Author:  [@Knighted\_Vorpal\_Sword](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knighted_Vorpal_Sword)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2001, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-gas-station-dammit/60629/11 "2001-04-03T17:20:39Z")
[QUOTE]
\*Originally posted by waxteeth \*
\*\*
[QUOTEThe ones I see normally have a sign that says food mart. It sounds like you’re stopping at convience stores that sell gas.\*\*[/QUOTE]
No, this really is a gas station, with 10 pumps and a little booth to pay that holds one person. However, the booth is stuffed with candy, cigs, phone cards, etc. It’s a convenience store only for those who are too lazy to get their asses out of their cars and go into a real store.
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### Author:  [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2001, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-gas-station-dammit/60629/12 "2001-04-03T23:37:57Z")
I would like you all to know that the only time I ever buy anything at the gas station is when it’s midnight out and the gas station twelve blocks away is the closest open store to my house. Thank you.
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### Author:  [@stofsky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stofsky)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2001, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-gas-station-dammit/60629/13 "2001-04-03T23:45:29Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by thinksnow \*
> \*\*
> I get ~30 mpg and 'm pissed. I can’t imagine why others, who surely get worse milage, aren’t livid by now.
> \*\*
And people who drive SUVs piss **stofsky** off! After all, they get less mileage than you do and…
Sorry, I now return you to your regularly scheduled rant.
(It’s a joke, folks)
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### Author:  [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2001, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-gas-station-dammit/60629/14 "2001-04-04T00:29:04Z")
It was the worst when they all started renting VHS movies. I would often wait ten minutes for them to get the rentels done for one person. I was paying exact price in cash. I thought a number of times of just walking out and leaving. Now I use the card at the pump and let the gorcery shoppers enjoy the checkout line.
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### Author:  [@truthbot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/truthbot)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2001, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-gas-station-dammit/60629/15 "2001-04-04T01:30:48Z")
Wait in line to pay for gas?? What is this of which you speak?
Here in Oregon, we pull up to the forward pump and a delightful attendant pumps your gas for you. You hand him your card before the transaction, and he hands you the receipt after your tank is filled. It is, afterall, against the law to pump your own gas in Oregon.
I burn in effigy any lawmaker that proposes a change to self-serve. It’s _orgasmitastic_ to pull into a gas station during a miserable hailstorm, snap your fingers and say “Jeeves, top off the tank, my good man!”
For those that succumb to their lowly cravings for nachos and lottery tickets, hell awaits them inside the mini-mart.
May the non-existant-diety be with them…
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### Author:  [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2001, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-gas-station-dammit/60629/16 "2001-04-04T01:40:59Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by matt\_mcl \*
> \*\*I would like you all to know that the only time I ever buy anything at the gas station is when it’s midnight out and the gas station twelve blocks away is the closest open store to my house. Thank you. \*\*
Believe me, Matt, if I lived in a city with cheap & efficient round-the-clock public transportation, I’d sell my car tomorrow. But the nearest bus stop is 1 1/2 miles from my house and the buses only run c. 6:00 A.M. to c. 6:00 P.M. in this town. And if I wanted to go somewhere outside the city… fuhgeddaboutit.
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### Author:  [@71-Hour\_Achmed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/71-Hour_Achmed)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2001, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-gas-station-dammit/60629/17 "2001-04-04T03:15:23Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by truthbot \*
> \*\*Wait in line to pay for gas?? What is this of which you speak?
>
> Here in Oregon, we pull up to the forward pump and a delightful attendant pumps your gas for you. You hand him your card before the transaction, and he hands you the receipt after your tank is filled. It is, afterall, against the law to pump your own gas in Oregon.
>
> I burn in effigy any lawmaker that proposes a change to self-serve. It’s _orgasmitastic_ to pull into a gas station during a miserable hailstorm, snap your fingers and say “Jeeves, top off the tank, my good man!”\*\*
Which is why last time I crossed the border, you people were paying nine cents more per gallon. 😛
I got you back, though. I returned a bunch of empty cans of Diet Coke that I’d brought down from Washington. I figure I cleared about fifty cents after the “no self-serve gas tax”. 😃
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### Author:  [@truthbot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/truthbot)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2001, 6:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-gas-station-dammit/60629/18 "2001-04-04T06:11:09Z")
71-Hour Achmed, thank you for returning your cans. I hope the five-cents per can you got helped you to make ends meet.
Did you notice the lack of a _sales tax_ when you filled up your tank in Oregon? Yep, that’s right. Not only do we get to eschew filling our own gas tanks, but we pay no state sales tax.
I dare say that’s still a bargain!