[SEL] Portland - Gas Prices

[guitronics]

In 1972,I worked for an Independent Gas station (Kayo),in 
Flint,Michigan.This station was located on an intersection,not close to 
a Freeway.(3 miles away).

I don't recall what the "Normal" price for a gallon of gas 
was,maybe$0.359 or so....Kayo was a high-volume station.All we did was 
sell gas and oil,etc.,no work on cars.

Across the street was a Shell station which charged 1 or 2 cents 
more/gallon.They did a lot of mechanical work.

Another station  (Texaco)  on the 3rd corner  charged 5 cents more per 
gallon....they really didn't want to sell gas,but did lots of mechanical 
work.

All gas stations at that time were full-service,and the 
"Islands"(remember those?) were  about 40' apart.We had 3 islands with 2 
pumps per.We got our gas delivered by different name-brand 
stations...Shell,Texaco,Citgo,whatever....always late at night (we were 
a 24-hour station).The other Stations were open only in the Daytime.

In the winter of '72/'73,Our district manager kept calling the station 
to tell us to lower the price,1 cent at a time,every few hours; over 2 
or 3 days.He visited the station on the 3rd day, and I asked him why the 
price kept going down.

He replied that there was a glut of gas,and they were trying to get rid 
of it.Customers were lined up by the 2nd day,and people were ripping the 
workers off, by pumping their own gas and paying us less than was 
pumped,the next customer would reset the pump, and pump his gas before 
we could check the amount pumped.

The adjacent stations were lowering their prices, in response to our 
lowering, but keeping the same "cents per gallon"spread.

There was only one person working per shift,and just before I quit 
working there, (cost me money through shortages) we were down to 
$0.169/gallon.A few months later,the "Gas Crisis" hit.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Richard Fink Sr wrote:

> John the first i pumped was at 17 cents a gallon. But i think i was 
> younger then. about 58 years ago.
> R Fink
> PA
>
>
>
> At 12:14 PM 4/16/2005, you wrote:
>
>> I still remember pumping lots of it at 24.9¢/gal. Told some med 
>> students that the other day and they looked at me like I was from 
>> another planet.
>>
>> On Apr 16, 2005, at 2:48 PM, Judge Tommy Turner wrote:
>>
>>> Richard,
>>>    I'll take a million gallons at that price.  I think you mean 2.19
>>> It wasn't long ago that 1.19 would be correct.
>>
>>
>>
>> John Culp
>> Bristol, Tennessee, USA
>>
>>
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