When $20 would fill up my gas tank, it seemed worth it to save a few cents and pump my own.
Now that I’m paying nearly $50 to fill up, I’m more than willing to pay a little more for someone to pump it for me. Who’s going to bring back “service” stations?
(In Oregon, where this photo was taken by Debby, they do pump the gasoline for you.)
Self-service gas stations are illegal in Oregon. I looked it up because my husband mentioned that self-service in New Jersey and Oregon is illegal…therefore raising the prices even higher.
While it is true that the price of gasoline may be a little bit higher in Oregon (due to the fact that you can’t pump your own), the flip side of that is that it provides about 10,000 jobs statewide–job for people who become wage-earning tax-payers as opposed to being on unemployment or welfare. Most of us (Oregonians) are willing to kick in the few cents per tank for that result.
Oregon’s current prices — with service — are no higher than Arizona’s or New Mexico’s — with self-service.