To Spite My Face
I've heard all this wailing and gnashing of teeth from gas station owners about how they aren't making any money anymore because the oil companies make them raise the price of gas and the states make them charge taxes and so no one comes into the stores anymore to buy pink coconut snowballs and corn nuts and fountain soda with the little ice cubes shaped like scored pellets that split into little discs when you bite them...just so.
Whoo. Sorry, lost myself there for a sec.
Anyway, that's a fallacy. I mean, yeah, the oil companies are bastards. See, for example, Exxon/Mobile's record profits this last quarter. Please, I'm crying them a river over the prices they have to charge because there aren't enough refineries and the hurricanes and blah de blah blah blah.
And I understand that the governors are abusing you and using you to boost the sagging economies of state governments, particularly in the rust belt. I know the entire transportation budget is made up of gas taxes and the little foreign man running my BP station is tired of charging me the extra howevermany cents per gallon because we have a Democrat running our state government.
HOWEVER. The real reason no one goes into the shitty little gas station stores anymore? Is because you have to pay at the pump or prepay for your gas. Because assholes have driven away from the pumps without paying. Those are the same assholes who don't have auto insurance. But, anyway, when you pay at the pump, what the hell is the point of going inside to buy a soda or a pack of gum or any number of impulse purchases that someone would usually buy if they could go in the store with their credit card AFTER having pumped their ten gallons of gas.
And, with prepay, you take your $10 bill or your $20 bill and you say, "Give me this much gas at pump whatever" and they do and you don't go back in to buy anything. Because you've already been in there and spent all your money. You're not going back in.
This point was driven home this morning when I found gas at $2.17 a gallon. I drove in, all excited, like it was Christmas morning. I wanted a Diet Coke so I hit the "pay inside" button. Which was still functioning. With no signs indicating that it could not be used. And after having done so, I get a tinny voice from the loud speaker telling me I have to prepay with a card or pay inside before pumping. So I start to prepay with my card, resigning myself to punishing them by refusing to go inside to buy a drink.
By this time, the nozzle is in my car and I've been standing there long enough to start washing my windows. And the voice then says, "You have to take the nozzle out and restart."
At this point, I want to throw the squeegie through the window of the joint.
I put the nozzle back in the pump and wait for the screen to clear, telling me to insert the card. I stare at the screen. I stare and stare. And stare.
And then I got in my car and drove away. And bought my Diet Coke somewhere else. And my gas.
Whoo. Sorry, lost myself there for a sec.
Anyway, that's a fallacy. I mean, yeah, the oil companies are bastards. See, for example, Exxon/Mobile's record profits this last quarter. Please, I'm crying them a river over the prices they have to charge because there aren't enough refineries and the hurricanes and blah de blah blah blah.
And I understand that the governors are abusing you and using you to boost the sagging economies of state governments, particularly in the rust belt. I know the entire transportation budget is made up of gas taxes and the little foreign man running my BP station is tired of charging me the extra howevermany cents per gallon because we have a Democrat running our state government.
HOWEVER. The real reason no one goes into the shitty little gas station stores anymore? Is because you have to pay at the pump or prepay for your gas. Because assholes have driven away from the pumps without paying. Those are the same assholes who don't have auto insurance. But, anyway, when you pay at the pump, what the hell is the point of going inside to buy a soda or a pack of gum or any number of impulse purchases that someone would usually buy if they could go in the store with their credit card AFTER having pumped their ten gallons of gas.
And, with prepay, you take your $10 bill or your $20 bill and you say, "Give me this much gas at pump whatever" and they do and you don't go back in to buy anything. Because you've already been in there and spent all your money. You're not going back in.
This point was driven home this morning when I found gas at $2.17 a gallon. I drove in, all excited, like it was Christmas morning. I wanted a Diet Coke so I hit the "pay inside" button. Which was still functioning. With no signs indicating that it could not be used. And after having done so, I get a tinny voice from the loud speaker telling me I have to prepay with a card or pay inside before pumping. So I start to prepay with my card, resigning myself to punishing them by refusing to go inside to buy a drink.
By this time, the nozzle is in my car and I've been standing there long enough to start washing my windows. And the voice then says, "You have to take the nozzle out and restart."
At this point, I want to throw the squeegie through the window of the joint.
I put the nozzle back in the pump and wait for the screen to clear, telling me to insert the card. I stare at the screen. I stare and stare. And stare.
And then I got in my car and drove away. And bought my Diet Coke somewhere else. And my gas.
posted by Miss Head at
1:37 PM
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