Re: Computer causes cheap gas windfall

 

If I saw what was happening, I would have taken all my vehicles and
every container I had to the station and filled them up.

After years of gouging the public on gas prices, the owners could
probably afford the loss.

And maybe they carried some kind of insurance to cover them in this
situation and the loss will get spread out over all policy holders.

 
The gas station owners ain't the ones lining their pockets with your
loot.

A BP station just re-opened near where I work.  The last time I was
there before it closed, the Indian guy working the register came
running out screaming as someone took off without paying for gas.

Not long after that the place closed for over a month. I went over
today to get gas.  All the pump LCDs said "PAY ATTENDANT BEFORE
PUMPING."  I thought surely I could pay him by slipping my credit card
in the pump reader, but the screen never even flickered.

Pretty much ever station in the area has a pre-pay policy, but a
credit card always works.  The only thing I can figure is that people
must be using a lot of stolen credit cards and the banks are sticking
those losses to the merchant.  I see no other reason to prohibit
credit card transactions at the pump.  Either way, it pissed me off so
I left and got gas elsewhere.

 
Bingo.  The "owners" are nearly always *leasing* the stations from the
big corporations, and make a set  -and rather small-  percentage on
each gallon sold. And they can't pass any losses they might suffer
back up to the corporation, either.

Should they happen to get their hands on a station in a high-traffic
metropolitan location that pumps circa 50,000 gallons a month (10,000
to 15,000 is more the average), then they pay a higher price for their
lease than the little guys do -and still don't get rich.  (The reason
that mini-marts exploded into being at gas stations all over the
country within the last 30 years is that it's just about impossible to
earn a living by running an old-fashioned gas station any more.)

The corporations make the billions of dollars, and there's not much
doubt that they're "gouging the public" for everything they can get,
but the station "owners" themselves do not.

 
The merchant takes about a 4% hit on the transaction when you use a
credit card.  IOW he is getting about $.15 a gallon less than he does
if you pay cash.

 

  Even more amazing that it took four hours before they noticed and
*nobody* had the inegrity to tell them.

  Well...  It was LA...

--
RCOS #7
IBA# 11465
http://imagesdesavions.com