Reply #46: It was like a magician's trick. That's how I remember it going down. [View All]

We had full service stations. All the stations I knew of were this way. Then, a few years later, we didn't have them any more.

The so-called "oil crisis" led to a change in the network of service stations. Numerous service stations which were one-owner operations--one owner with one service station--were shut down during this time. I also remember how there used to be these little groups called "Esso", and "Enco" and some others. Numerous of those smaller groups were the subject of a big ad campaign which said "We're changing our name to Exxon!" (Incidentally, this triggered a National Lampoon issue which proclaimed, "America is changing its name to Nixxon!")

There was a period during which the larger companies bought up a lot of the smaller ones. (Just like nowadays when everything seems to be owned, or on the way to being owned, by something like one or two rich guys. Look, for example, at banking. One of our local banks is now Wachovia. Our BankOne credit cards are now Chase. And on and on.) The larger companies then set up a system in which there was a convenience store attached to a gas station.

The big oil companies realized they could knock the independent station owners, and many of the convenience stores (which did not sell gas) out, all at once, by combining the two things.

The convenience store (like all such stores) charged outrageously high prices for everything. We all know what it's like to buy, say, a gallon of milk, in such a place. Ludicrous!) The companies couldn't be bothered with keeping guys employed if the guys' function were to go out to the cars and fill them up and do the windshield and check the oil. Terribly inefficient! So it became self-service. Employ less people... this leaves more profit for the owner, right?

People didn't complain too much because everyone assumed that those damned Arabs were responsible for ALL the "gas shortages" and the resultant high prices. So everyone assumed that we all had to just tighten our belts and learn to do with less (less service) in return for the privilege of being allowed to buy gas from our friends, the big oil companies.

It was a sort of oil company version of the MacDonald's-ization of roadside restaurants. I can remember traveling 1000 miles, as a child, and you'd pass all sorts of restaurants in little towns, and you took your pick of which ones you wanted to try. Now, as you know, when you travel, your choice is generally something like, "should I try the Cracker Barrel or MacDonald's at Exit 98... or should I go to the MacDonald's at Exit 110?" People complain about how Wal-mart killed the small town main streets. Well, the other large companies have also done their share to kill the individuality of various regions.

And notice the similarity of the change in the restaurant business, to the change in the gas station business. Do you sit down in MacDonald's and have a waiter/waitress come to your table and take your order? Hell, no. You stand in line, you pay, you pick up your paper-wrapped order and you go sit down at whatever table is available. When you're through, you clean up after yourself. Less employees = more profits for the big corporation. WE are, in a sense, their "employees"--we work to clean our MacDonald's tables for free. We work to take the food to the table for free. Is it really cheaper? I don't think so. I remember some small lunch restaurants in New Orleans which were quite cheap, AND which had the "old-fashioned" table service.