Comment by kcplate 8 days ago
IMO gas stations haven’t changed all that much over the last 50 years (forget the 15) beyond:
- now having larger buildings to incorporate more convenience products (mostly foodstuffs) for sale - more pumps
> often you can pay by card at the pump.
That’s definitely an innovation that creates convenience but does it really change the commercial function of the station much? You are still essentially transacting for fuel, which is what gas stations have done for decades. My guess is while a lot of stations provide that ability out of customer demand, but the owners would probably rather the customer come in and buy the over priced soda and Doritos along with the gas purchase. I don’t think owner-operators make hardly anything on the fuel sales.
With my comment I was thinking more along the lines of overall footprint of the station and what products are being sold. I think self-service pushed the ability for stations to service more pumps and with a person anchored to a register inside instead of outside attending to the pumps, it allowed the ability of stations to expand to more a mini-mart concept easily where more profitable products (to the station owner) are sold.
EV charging might help bring people into the food, but i suspect you don’t “turn tables” fast enough to make EV charging beneficial enough to bringing enough people inside to warrant devoting a lot of space to that activity.
In Oregon self-serve only became legal a few years ago so we still have plenty of full service stations and attendants to this day.
In (the parts that I visited in) EU, it means some stations are completely attendant-less and cashless. Can fill up at 3AM in the boonies if you want.
North America has stuck to minimum of 1 staff at all times. No staff = closed.
Maybe that can change.
> North America has stuck to minimum of 1 staff at all times. No staff = closed.
Not true at all at least in California. I regularly fill at unattended stations late at night past midnight. The credit card operated pumps are operable 24/7.
Years ago we were traveling in remote areas of Nevada and running out of gas around 2am, desperately trying to find a gas station (this is before mobile phones, so couldn't just look things up, although maybe even today might be too remote for signal). Finally rolled into a small village with a gas station but everything was dark, so we thought we'll take a nap there until whenever they open. But I noticed the pump light was on, so I gave it a try. Yes, it worked!
That's pushing it around a decade too far back.
Today, every gas station is self-serve, and often you can pay by card at the pump.
50 years ago, plenty of gas stations still had attendants. One guy would fill the tank (possibly with 'leaded'), another might give your windshield a quick wipe. You could ask for them to check your oil, too.
Not too much has changed since the '80s though.