Service stations are rapidly becoming a thing of the past. Why is this?
According to a Forbes article written by Elie Y. Katz from January 2022, "Consumers and business owners are facing challenging times at gas stations across the nation. Due to the pandemic, people are making fewer trips to the gas station.
"The number of people working at home has skyrocketed, and with no commute, they don’t need service stations as often as they did in the past. With the remote working trend likely to continue in the immediate and possibly long-term future, the need for gas will likely not increase. There has also been a decrease in family vacations, which means fewer vehicles fueling up for long road trips.
"Finally, the federal government’s encouragement of the adoption of hybrid and electric vehicles, by default, disadvantages gas stations. All of this adds up to very small profit margins, an average of 1.4%, or $0.05-$0.07 a gallon."
And yet there was a time when there were gas stations at every major intersection in a city. (Meister Road and Oberlin Avenue in Lorain is a good example, with a gas station on three out of four corners.)
But stations weren't always built on empty, available farmland. In smaller cities, they had to muscle their way in among homes that had been there for decades. So there was a cost: a lot of fine, old houses had to go.
The photo below from the April 19, 1965 Journal shows this process in action in Amherst.
The caption notes, "This shovel went into operation this week in Amherst at Cleveland and Lincoln streets on the northeast corner as workmen started to wreck the first of two houses shown in this picture. The first house was demolished Wednesday, and yesterday the razing of the house shown in the background commenced.
"The two residences are being removed to clear a site for a new Atlantic service station, the second new station to be built on the north side of Cleveland Ave., close to the downtown section."
I'm not sure how long the station was in operation, but today an insurance company occupies the location.
Amherst has a similar situation a little to the east on the corner of Cleveland and Spring Street. Who could have guessed back in the 1960s that these stations located in old-time neighborhoods would eventually close?
I remember what my college buddy Hoob (who worked for BP America) told me back in the 1980s: "We make more money selling chips and beer at these stations than we do selling gasoline."
Right out of gradual skool I worked as a contractor for a company that insured gas stations.
ReplyDeleteI travelled all over the U.S. (north of the Ohio and east of the Mississippi Rivers) surveying stations owners on how they maintained the inventory in their underground tanks.
I was appalled by many. "We just order gas when we run out."
Which meant, of course, if there was a major leak (and there were plenty), they'd have no idea until gasoline showed up in a nearby ditch or a neighbor's basement.
I hope things have changed, over the decades, but I'd still never live within a mile of a gas station with underground tanks!
We have been blessed with an abundant amount of gas stations in the US. I spent a couple years working in Brazil and you can't find a gas station there. You may have to travel two cities east or west to get gas. Everyone has motorcycles because they can run for several weeks on one tank of gas.
ReplyDeleteA friend of mine owns a mom and pop style gas station. The "make more $ selling chips" is still a thing. They also do auto repair, which is a good thing b/c they make almost nothing on gas - its rather interesting actually. What they pay the supplier to bring the gas in is based on a price-point that is sometimes months behind what they can actually sell the gas for. So, with all the price fluctuations, there are some months they actually lose money on gas.
ReplyDeleteI worked for several gas stations when I was in college 55-60 years ago, before the days of selling food and sundries. Even back then, we didn't make much money on gas; had to make it up on oil and TBA - tires, batteries and accessories. Most gas stations were "service stations" - I did mufflers, brakes, tune-ups, oil changes, rebuilt carburetors, fixed tires and sold new ones, etc.
ReplyDeleteWe checked our gasoline supply every day by putting a long pole into the tank. Essentially a very long dipstick.
Buster...
ReplyDeleteDaily sticking wasn't all that common a practice back in the day, so kudos to those owners. Some big-brand supplies required fairly tight inventory control. What were those stations selling, do you recall?
I hope you placed the stick gently instead of just letting it drop. There were lots of stations where guys punched holes in the bottom of their tanks that way and lost a whole lotta gasoline into the ground in because of it.
And I'm wondering... did you use the goose grease stuff (I forget its name) on the end of the stick to see if there was water sitting in the bottom of the tank? Sometimes water would come in when fuel leaked out and fooled the owner until customers started complaining about "dirty gas."
Oh, the stuff I saw. Some of it was truly unbelievable.
The kids of today don't know what a carburetor is.Or an oil change.What's a muffler?Today it's all plug and play.Like a video game.
ReplyDeleteDon,
ReplyDeleteIt was just a pole, you let it down gently until it hit bottom and then pulled it back out. I don't recall any geese being involved, or grease derived from them. (Actually, that's one of my favorite terms; I like to call all my wife's potions "goose grease." She does not find it amusing.)
This was at Sohio, but I also worked at Standard and Shell. Don't remember much else about the operation. We also noted the readings on each pump, but I think this was more of an audit procedure.
Anon,
That's all fine with me - I gave up the backyard mechanic business a LONG time ago.
I grew up just down the street from that intersection in Amherst. I was never aware of a gas station on that corner, so it was gone by 1980. There was a Sohio station across the street (directly facing Lincoln Street) from the 1920s into the 1980s. I remember my parents getting gas there many times. It's now a parking lot for the hospital.
ReplyDeleteMy dad bought that ARCO building in 1974. He needed more space for his insurance agency. He did not want his building looking like a gas station. The bicentennial was in full swing, and the colonial look was popular. Jack Clark, from Clark and Post designed the building and addition. The original 4 outside walls of the station remain. My dad moved his agency, and opened at that location on June 20, 1975.
ReplyDeleteWow, I really appreciate you taking the time to comment about your father purchasing the building. I'm surprised that it was back in the mid-1970s, I would have guessed that the gas station lasted longer than that. The complex looks very nice today, it is kind of neat that the four walls from the ARCO remain.
ReplyDelete