Is this unusual in Long Beach? All the gas stations near me allow you to pay afterwards.
As with amarone, there was only one time that I encountered a gas station that required to pay before you pumped. That was in Canton, Ohio, this summer, and I was honestly shocked that this practice existed. God, I live such a sheltered life. Luckily, the sign was spotted before I started pumping.
Most of the gas stations I’ve been to in Mississippi required you to pre-pay after dark, but only after dark - the rest of the time it was pump first, then pay cashier. Up here in New York the gas stations generally have big signs posted around that tell you to “PLEASE PUMP FIRST THEN PAY CASHIER.” I don’t know whether that’s to remind you NOT to prepay, or just to remind you to pay at all…
I’m with amarone on this one. The important part shouldn’t be how much people in surrounding states may or may not be paying. The important thing is to have the option of paying less. If the attendant is providing the labor to pump the gas, you are paying for that labor, and therefore paying more than if you pumped it yourself.
From whence comes this irrational fear of optional self serve? At no point in my 20+ years of driving has anyone forced me at gunpoint to pump my own gas. If it is 20 below and I need gas and don’t feel like getting out of the car, well, I bypass the self serve only places and pull up to one that offers full serve, where the highly trained professional springs into action. Maybe NJ doesn’t have that many gas stations?
OK, maybe that isn’t it.
To me, life in America is all about choices. Whopper or Big Mac? Paper or plastic? Self serve or full serve? (or mini serve, which seems to be more often the case).
Quick! Everyone move to rural Tennessee, where there are no booted pumps because there’s no emissions regulations, where you’re allowed to pump your own gas if you want, and where you can pay for it when you’re finished instead of before!
I never realized how blessed I was.
Now if we could just convince all the podunk gas stations to install pumps where you can pay outside…
Interesting OP.
On NJ - I always laugh when I stop at a gas station on I-80 when on a road-trip and find the confused bewildered family congregated around the gas pump. Usually there is frantic arm waving, accusations, and pointing involved as they attempt to figure out how to pump gas. Interestingly enough, they all have NJ license plates on their cars. 
On OR - Um… I live in Ohio but worked for a company in Portland. I frequently traveled to Portland and rented a car. I would, at least once a week, stop at the convenience mart/gas station near my office and self-serve my own gas. No one ever even questioned me, nor do I recall seeing a pump-monkey serving anyone else. Am I missing something??
MeanJoe
It is the norm in California to have to pay before you pump. Been that way since around the first gas crisis in the '80s.
It used to be that way here in Texas (or at least Houston.) But it has slowly phased out to where you can pay after again, but at certain places you have to pre-pay after dark. Personally, I love the new pay at the pump thing. What a time saver! Even if you need something from the store—you can start pumping your gas then go inside.
Has anyone noticed that those little lock thingies that let it keep flowing are coming back? I think they outlawed them for a while here.
Don’t post much, my access to SDMB is limited these days, but:
It is against the law to pump your own gas in NJ. However, in the 3 years I’ve been riding a motorcycle, nobody has put gas in the bike but me. It’s never even come up as an issue, not at any gas station I’ve ever stopped at. Usually I just pull up to the pump and start filling… Sometimes the attendant watches, usually they ignore me until it’s time to pay. On a rare occasion, the attendant turns on the pump and hands me the nozzle. No pitching a fit required…
-Jon
Where was this chimera? 
(note my location)
Pump-before-pay is, in my experience, completely unheard of in California. Visiting my folks in Texas a year or so ago, I was gassing up their car and stood there feeling stupid for several moments trying to find the pay-at-the-pump receptacle before my mother prompted me, “You pump it first here.” Then you have to go wait in line for the human to process your card and give you a receipt. Quite a bit slower, actually - I think I prefer it out here.
Some of the stations here in Phoenix have those stupid things too, and on higher pollution days we’re urged to fill up after sundown, etc.
I’m fine with that. I don’t know how much, if any, good it does, but whatever.
I do, however, hate it when I run into one of the tempermental pump boots, where you have to jam the nozzle all the way in and then hold it in place with a lot of forward pressure to keep the pump from shutting off. I get one of those about every 1 in 5 times using a boot pump. Pisses me off to no end. I can’t help but wonder what would happen if some spindly little old lady got on the same pump. If I’m having trouble, I can’t see any way someone like that could even get it going, much less fill the tank.
Corner of Willow and Bellflower. Chevron station but now it is usually a fruit stand location. It was weird they knew me there, you know how it is. How often are you recognized at a gas station, rarely. I know some of you in small towns won’t understand this, but Long Beach has a pop of 500k and goes from very nice (>$1M) to very rough (Bloods and Crypts) nieghborhoods.
They used to let you pay after pumping at the 76 station on Bellflower just north of Stearns, but I haven’t been there in years, so don’t know if they still allow it. It wasn’t as friendly as the Chevron station.
I recall the fruit stand there, but I’d completely forgotten that it was ever a gas station.
I’ve never been to the 76 at Bellflower & Stearn, but the diner right across the street does great breakfasts for cheap. Next time I go there I may try gassing up at the 76 just to see if I can pump first.
I think I’m a block off, actually. Whoops…
Oh, ok. I stand corrected. I thought they were a lot more anal about it. I wonder if that’s true all over the state?