Gas station ran outta gas..

Welcome to Monday. The gas station by my shop ran out of gas today. I pumped 22 cents - so like 3 drops. Thought maybe the pump was broken so I went in to talk to the attendant; he informed me that they were out

It’s been a long time since I’ve been to a gas station that ran out of gas. That was in a different country. On a different continent.

 

We’ve saw it a couple times over the past few months in Phoenix, first time ever for me too.

 

Actually happened to me on Saturday. I only got 15 cents of gas. Same as you, first time ever in my life. To add insult to injury, I gave the attendant 50 bucks and he had to locate a calculator to figure out how much money he owed me. I told him how much he owed me, but nope, he needed to find a calculator.

It was a very frustrating situation, all around. I was exceedingly not pleased.

 

Ouch. Kids these days... geez.

 

Y'all probably weren't around in the 70s.

 

Nope. Missed all of that joy, but that's the first thing I thought of when the attendant said they were out.

 

I hope what happened to you isn't an omen. It was a mess.

 

I remember!

 

Just curious
What part of the country are you in that this is happening? I'm in New England and with New jersey part of the brotherhood, we always have had gas since the 1979 shortage. I was too young for the OPEC embargo of 73-74'.

 

God bless new math...

 

It's not new math. He was owed $43.75. Easy day.

 

I think your calculator battery needs changed

 

The kid was playing with a cell phone before I approached. A CELL PHONE. I am about 99.9999999% sure he had a calculator on it. I might even be more certain than that. Probably infinity divided by 10E-99 certain. And besides that, he could not subtract 15 cents from 50 bucks in his head? 50.00 - 0.15 = ?????? If he had just asked me for a quarter, I would have obliged.

Guys. There are problems on the horizon.

btw.. of course.. I was expecting my 43.75 in return. Duh.

 

We run out during a projected hurricane when people do this....and yes, it has happened.

 

no, that is all wrong, you're supposed to put it in your styrofoam cup !!!!

 

For people who do the math in their head giving the extra quarter might well make good sense but I'd swear that on recent occasions when I've handed over a bill larger than the amount plus change to lessen the amount of shrapnel I get back it confuses the hell out of some cashiers.

 

Social engineering.
Another example is making parking spaces smaller so bigger vehicles don’t easily fit; designers and builders get financial incentives for their participation.
Some places are not allowing building permits for new gas stations. Gas stations without gas make electric vehicles seem more attractive.
There’s lots of additional examples but posting them here could be considered “political”, and get me banned

 

That happens all the time to me. I hand a few extra coins or an extra dollar and they usually hand it right back, along with a pile of other change when all I needed was a quarter or a fiver. I usually have to tell them what I'm giving them, why I'm giving them a random assortment of monies, then tell them what change I'm expecting back. They usually just stare at me like I'm some sort of weirdo. And while that last part may be true, it doesn't change the fact that my maths are correct...

 

I have some memories from many decades ago when working at service stations that there was a common scam where this would be the opening step. Midway through making change, the scammer adds some bills and says just give me a $20. Maybe do it again. Get the cashier confused and walk away with more money.
I remember closing my cash drawer and doing a re-start, once or twice…

 

Odd and even Baby..
We used to empty the loose change out of the ash tray and put a few gallons in the tank..




During Covid our local stations would run out of gas quite often.
Not so much now..

 

We need a Tundra powered by woodgas thread next. We’ll call it the 4th Gen (No Gas) forum.

 

Yep, I remember that.

 

My local station ran out of premium on me the other day.

When Tucson started charging $1/gallon MORE than my area recently, I found a station in Tucson that was only $.60 more/gallon. They were sold out.

Yes, there are problems. The public mis-education system is doing precisely what it was designed to do...

 

Tulsa, OK just came out of a week without power (100 mph winds came blowing down the plains) and the accompanying hysteria: generators sold out statewide, gas cans sold out in town, gas stations run dry. Between dodging 50 year old downed trees, power lines and the lines of cars at the two gas stations open, it felt like War of the Worlds. Luckily people didn't start eating each other. Our power came back on 3 days in, as soon as I had located a generator and got it home

 

About 20 years ago we lost power with Isabelle for 12 days. Of course I found a generator at 2X price on day 11.

 

What I don't understand is,
If there's a weather event and every jackass and their brother go out and buy up every generator within 100 mi radius,......
WTF happened to all these generators, 2 yrs later when there's another weather event and everyone is buying them all up again?!

 

That's a good question. I wonder how many of them crap out because the maintenance isn't kept up with.