Hmmm....

So, I pull into a gas station today to fill up with three dollar a gallon gas, which reminds me, if the Iraq war is about oil, where's my cheap gas? Am I the only one that sees this? People are protesting "no war for oil", "we're trading soldiers for oil" etc... but yet gas prices still keep climbing. At this point I'm calling B.S. If the war was really about oil, wouldn't a gallon of gas get cheaper as we're stealing more oil from the Iraqis?? That's not the real reason for this post though....

So, I pull into the gas station to fill up with three dollar a gallon gas. I remove my gas cap, grab the filler, push the button for the arm and a leg grade, and nothing happens. I know what you're thinking, "Torqued, you gotta go inside and pay before you pump", and I know that, but why do I have to pay before I pump? Why can't we trust people not to pump and run?

First off, if I pump $100 worth of gas and drive off without paying, isn't that a crime? I know every one of these convenience stores has thousands of dollars worth of security equipment. They also have at least two people in the store holding up the counter or standing around in the cooler, why don't you fire one of those slackers and hire someone to watch the security cameras, and cross reference the reciepts with the license plates of the cars who pull up to the pumps? Surely you can find someone in America qualified to watch a TV.

Now once you've got your illegal immigrant to figure out who stole your gas, call the cops. It's their job to find criminals, right? Well, obviously they must be too busy handing out seat belt tickets, and harrasing people who park in a spot too long, to waste time protecting and serving the population of thier beat. After all, those things bring revenue into the city. Last time I checked, cities make their money off taxes to their citizens. SO if we follow that line of thinking, most cops are nothing more than tax collectors.

I'll get off the cops for now. Let's look at this whole pay before you pump from a business standpoint. Supposedly, all the real profit at a gas station comes from the drinks and snacks that people who purchase gas also pick up while they are at your store. Now, if I pay in cash, I have to come into the store to do it. So that makes good business sense, right? Make everyone there come inside to pay for their gas, so they'll be tempted to buy the high profit items. Sounds reasonable.

BUT, if I pay with a credit card, I can pay at the pump, which eliminates my chance to binge shop inside the store on high profit items. Now where this gets really messed up is credit card companies charge venders a percentage of the purchase, along with transaction fee everytime you swipe a card. So if I buy ten dollars worth of gas with a credit card it's really only worth about nine dollars and seventy cents to the business.

So these rocket surgeons have figured out a way to make it convenient for the customers who cost them the most money in fees, to not only bypass the real profit center of a gas station, but to punish the guy who is paying with cash by making him do the walk of shame into the store to stand in line to give them cash so they'll turn on the pump, so he can walk back in the store, and stand in line again to get the change.

I know what you're thinking, the cash customer costs the owner man hours because the pothead behind the counter has to figure out how to make the change, but if you think about it, the employees are almost always paid by the hour. That slacker is going to get paid if he's making change or not...

I just can't believe that cash paying American people haven't lost their mind about this type of discrimination. Cash descrimination, I'm calling my lawyer.

Torqued