Something screwy’s going on here in central New Jersey.
In my home town, all the gas stations, all at just about the same time, have gone out of business except for the two most expensive ones. Some of these had been selling gas since I was a little boy.
Venturing out of town, you can see the rot setting in wherever you look: gas station after gas station, out of business.
Uh, is somebody doing the Green New Deal here without asking us? Well, all right, true–they never ask us, they just do it. There are plenty of people driving our streets, a lot more than I would like–and hardly any gas stations. Are they thinking, “They’ll have to give up their cars, those peasants, if they can’t get any gas for them!”? This is a Democrat town in a Democrat county in a Democrat state, so there’s no one to defend us from the arrogance of rulers. Louis XIV said, “L’etat, c’est moi” (“The state, it’s me!”). He would’ve fit right in.
I don’t like being ruled. It’s not American. It doesn’t belong here.
We need to do something about it.
They probably had to pay all their employees $15/hr plus increased payroll taxes plus mandated insurance benefits with jacked-up premiums plus….
Or else they were wiped out by vandals and robbers.
If you like your gas pump, you can keep your gas pump….
LOL!!
I noticed this too in my east coast city. In my neighborhood there are no more gas stations all the way to the bridge. South of my neighborhood there are a few, so people coming into the city have to travel south for gas before going north. There’s definitely the stench of the Green New Deal/ UN agenda in this. Keep me posted on this, thanks. In the meantime, i’ll do a little fishing, even if it means wearing a Hazmat mask – lol.
Somehow our public servants metamorphosed into our rulers. That has to be changed back.
Off with their…(can I say this?)
Let us merely speculate that perhaps there was some merit to the activities of some of my French ancestors.
OK
That’s really strange. Where I am in Ohio gas stations are all over the place, some of them recently renovated/upgraded. Must be something going on at the state or local level in NJ. Too bad you aren’t still a reporter or you could investigate… Where are you supposed to fill up if you’re traveling and everything is closed?
Some of these gas stations have been bought by out-of-state developers. Our oldest corner gas station is supposedly going to be torn down and the property used for “an indoor/outdoor art complex.” There isn’t enough room on that tiny lot for an inferiority complex, let alone an art complex.
Everyone, don’t let this happen to your town.
Never, never, never entrust Democrats with public office. They will wreck your town and I don’t mean maybe!
A real gas station? What is that? We have convenience stores all over the place but no gas stations. If you need work on your car you go to Firestone or some other outfit. I remember the days when you pulled into the gas station to fill up and never had to leave your car as an attendant cleaned your windows and checked your engine fluid levels as the tank was being filled, and then took you money and brought you change – and all done with a smile!
They still have the attendant do those things for you at New Jersey’s local gas stations–if you can find a local gas station anymore.
The only time I ever had to gas up my car by myself, I made a horrendous mess of it.
I’m not sure how much this applies to you folks in the US, but this might have something to do with it.
Gas stations don’t control their prices. They all buy their fuel from the same few big companies, and those companies tell them what to price the gas at. It doesn’t matter if they are a franchise or an independent station; they get told what to charge by their supplier. Even though they are supposed to be competitors, the suppliers always have pretty much the same price. The few exceptions are membership based stations, such as Costco or, locally, Co-op franchises. They tend to have lower prices or, in the case of our local Co-ops, members also get a check in the mail, once a year, with the amount based on equity accumulated throughout the year (our first year back, we got over $130).
Gas stations make very little money on fuel purchases. Much of it goes to either the suppliers or to the government in taxes (in Canada, our prices are greatly inflated due to all the taxes levied on fuel. Right now, we’re at C$1.209/L locally, so about C$4.81/gallon).
Which means, in order to survive, gas stations have to sell other things. That’s why so many have convenience stores. That’s where they can make any sort of profit. In my many road trips over the years, I’ve seen few garage/gas station combos anymore. Even some of the stand-alone gas stations, that have nothing but a little cubicle for the employees, have drinks, snacks and junk food available for sale. There is one gas station in a nearby town that has no employees at all; it’s pay at the pump only, completely unattended, and even that one has vending machines. Others have shops, car washes and even restaurants attached. Our closest gas station is also a general store, post office and liquor store. They have only 1 pump, and their gas prices are usually much higher than any of the surrounding towns. They have no say in the matter.
If a small gas station doesn’t have a shop, or can’t make a lot of sales in their shop, they will likely go under. There just isn’t enough profit margin for them in the sale of fuel alone to cover their overhead.
We do have gas stations/convenience stores in our neighborhood. But if they’re all permitted to go out of business, I hope the people won’t take that lying down.
Problem is, most people are apathetic, and just won’t care. 🙁 Or they give lip service, moaning and groaning about how sad it is to lose the mom and pop places, while never supporting those businesses with their dollars.
If we can’t gas up our cars, that really puts us out. I would find it intolerable. So, I hope, would an awful lot of people.
Oh, yes! We live in the boonies. There is no such thing as “public transit” out here. We are very dependent on our vehicles because of our location alone. With a disabled husband, we also depend on vehicles to get him to his medical appointments, or the hospital. It’s faster for us to drive him than wait who knows how long for an ambulance to find where we live!
The anti-oil folks who think we can just do away with cars and trucks tend to be extremely privileged, and they don’t even know it. They think everyone can just take a bus or right a bike or whatever. They have no clue what soft, spoiled lives they lead, to have those options!
They think everybody lives in New York.
Public transportation–it’s never on time, the fares always go up, there are often people on it with you that you’d rather weren’t there, and it’s often dirty. And crowded! Give me my own car any day.
Yup.
The last city we lived in, it was cheaper to have a car than to buy 4 adult bus passes. Our kids were not adults at the time, but the cheaper student passes were only available through schools (we home schooled) and could not be used evenings or weekends.
My husband would take the bus to work. Shortly after we moved, there was one morning where, getting off at his stop, he had to step around the body of a stabbing victim, still steaming in the snow, as the police arrived. On a different bus, some guy asked another if he had cold medication. He said no, so the first guy stabbed him as they got off the bus. What a welcome to our new city!