Consider it the “Y2K” problem for gas stations: old gas stations are having problems dealing with increasing price of gasoline. Thousands of gas pumps can’t register more than $3.99 a gallon or a sale past $99.99, causing tremendous problems in a day of continually increasing gas prices and gas-guzzling trucks and SUVs. This most particularly effects mom-and-pop gas stations, about 8,500 of the nation’s 170,000 gas stations may be effected, or 17,000 individual pumps. It’s not cheap to replace these old-fashioned gas pumps either, running between $10,000 and $15,000 a piece. Is it the end of an era?

At Chip Colville’s Chevron station in this eastern Washington town, where men in the family have pumped gas since 1919, three stubby, gray pumps were installed when gas was less than $1 a gallon. They top out at $3.999, only 30 cents above the price of regular gas at Colville’s station.

“In small towns, where you don’t have the volume, there’s no way you can afford to pay for the replacements for these old pumps,” Colville said. “It’s just not economically feasible.”

We don’t want to glamorize gas consumption, but the age where families in America drove for fun may be coming to an end. Europeans and citizens of other nations have adjusted their behavior already, as they have been paying higher gas prices for decades. Americans are now just adjusting to a harsh new reality, and old-fashioned gas stations are lagging behind the times.

States are making exceptions for gas stations with old-fashioned pumps, with some states like North Dakota and Washington allowing gas stations to “half-price” fuel, or measure sales in half-gallons. Hopefully that’s only temporary, and they don’t end up measuring in quarter-gallons (imagine how much gas would cost then)!

The rising cost of gas is squeezing smaller gas stations and mom-and-pop operations, requiring them to evolve or quit the business. As Jeff Lenard, a spokesman for the National Association of Convenience Stores has said, “if you’re just that kind of image of the ’50s gas station where you have a conversation, fill up and have a cup of coffee, that’s in the movies.” That’s so true. Of course, it’s not just the price of gas that has changed, but the pace of American culture. Everything is moving so fast that these nostalgic visions of the past can’t keep up, and nor can the mom-and-pop gas stations behind them.

[Yahoo!]

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