Convenience Stores and Gas Stations No Longer 24 hours

[Alpha8472]

Many gas stations and convenience stores right now are no longer 24 hours. I have seen some close the convenience store at 6 pm such as Exxon in California. A small number of gas stations might stay open until 11 pm such as ARCO AMPM but many gas stations are closing really early and shut down their gas pumps. Some people still have to work late and there is no gas available or convenience store food after 11 pm. Health care workers have no place to get food or gas. All the supermarkets have shut down early.

A few stations keep their gas pumps open, but there is no attendant after closing. Is this legal? What if there is a gas pump fire?

What about other states? Is Oregon still doing free attendant gas pumping? I would think that those gas stations in the state would want to close as early as possible as there is so little demand for gas right now. There is no use to pay employees to stand around and do nothing.

[storewanderer]

Many gas stations and convenience stores right now are no longer 24 hours. I have seen some close the convenience store at 6 pm such as Exxon in California. A small number of gas stations might stay open until 11 pm such as ARCO AMPM but many gas stations are closing really early and shut down their gas pumps. Some people still have to work late and there is no gas available or convenience store food after 11 pm. Health care workers have no place to get food or gas. All the supermarkets have shut down early.

A few stations keep their gas pumps open, but there is no attendant after closing. Is this legal? What if there is a gas pump fire?

What about other states? Is Oregon still doing free attendant gas pumping? I would think that those gas stations in the state would want to close as early as possible as there is so little demand for gas right now. There is no use to pay employees to stand around and do nothing.

Yes, CA stations can keep pumps on 24 hours at unattended stations. The fire extinguisher is supposed to be present to mitigate fire concerns. There may be some city ordinances that prohibit the practice but I do not know of any offhand. In many areas of CA, stations opt NOT to do that due to vandalism concerns for the gas pumps or card skimming visits (people pretending to get fuel, but installing a skimmer). Easier to go through the camera tapes and see who is messing with the pumps at a closed station than an open one. But even around Sacramento I know of a number of stations that keep the pumps on all night after closing the store. But in rural areas there are many stations that close around dark and have the pumps on all night.

Oh, in Reno and Sparks Safeway Stores are 6 AM to 10 PM but the gas station/c-store are still open 24 hours with two employees on duty at all times.

OR allows self service gas in certain counties with low populations or on Indian Reservations. The certain counties are allowed to have the pumps "unattended" only during certain (overnight) hours. The rural Oregon counties (basically the entire eastern part of the state and perhaps parts of the coast) got the law passed due to limitations on gas availability during overnight hours in remote communities.

[SamSpade]

OR allows self service gas in certain counties with low populations or on Indian Reservations. The certain counties are allowed to have the pumps "unattended" only during certain (overnight) hours. The rural Oregon counties (basically the entire eastern part of the state and perhaps parts of the coast) got the law passed due to limitations on gas availability during overnight hours in remote communities.

In The Dalles, the Safeway gas attendant told me to go ahead and pump my own gas. I believe Wasco County is small enough to qualify for the "night" service rules, but he said this was a new corporate policy they were told over the weekend. It may have been part of the Governor's order.

Another oddity I had on my return to Oregon was a verbal OK to charge my credit card at the coffeehouse drive through in Baker City. The barista said it was part of a new law. Frankly, I don't understand why so many merchants still make you sign. Visa and MC dropped that well before all of this.

On a related note, the Safeway gas mini-mart was pretty good for its space. Normally a self serve soda fountain and brewed coffee service (all closed currently), wall of chilled beverages including beer (didn't notice if there was wine), chips/jerky/candy, lemons and limes, and in front of the cashier a good selection of "HABA" items. Most Safeway stations are just a kiosk but this was one with the smaller Safeway designed mini-mart. No groceries or prepared food items like the newly relaunched Albertsons express stations, though.

[Super S]

OR allows self service gas in certain counties with low populations or on Indian Reservations. The certain counties are allowed to have the pumps "unattended" only during certain (overnight) hours. The rural Oregon counties (basically the entire eastern part of the state and perhaps parts of the coast) got the law passed due to limitations on gas availability during overnight hours in remote communities.

In The Dalles, the Safeway gas attendant told me to go ahead and pump my own gas. I believe Wasco County is small enough to qualify for the "night" service rules, but he said this was a new corporate policy they were told over the weekend. It may have been part of the Governor's order.

Another oddity I had on my return to Oregon was a verbal OK to charge my credit card at the coffeehouse drive through in Baker City. The barista said it was part of a new law. Frankly, I don't understand why so many merchants still make you sign. Visa and MC dropped that well before all of this.

On a related note, the Safeway gas mini-mart was pretty good for its space. Normally a self serve soda fountain and brewed coffee service (all closed currently), wall of chilled beverages including beer (didn't notice if there was wine), chips/jerky/candy, lemons and limes, and in front of the cashier a good selection of "HABA" items. Most Safeway stations are just a kiosk but this was one with the smaller Safeway designed mini-mart. No groceries or prepared food items like the newly relaunched Albertsons express stations, though.

There are also a few stations on Highway 30 between Rainier and Astoria that have limited self-serve. One I saw has signs posted that the station is self-serve after 6PM. The store itself I think is open later though.

[storewanderer]

I stopped at Maverik tonight (where gas was down to 2.69 which looked good). They have a PA announcement piped through their in-store radio and also through the gas pumps stating a few things:
1. Do not stand close together in line to pay and do not cut in line with the big gap
2. Payment terminals have Contactless technology, many credit and debit cards now have this technology, so you should tap your card to the pinpad instead of inserting it because this way you will not have to touch the pinpad. But if you do have to touch the pinpad, they will clean it off.
3. Do not take the toilet paper from the restrooms

Aside from that the operation seemed pretty normal, but no unwrapped self service food and all bakery was wrapped in small plastic bags (this is not a huge change, they already used those for cookies, now they just use them for the donuts too which used to be loose).

Also went to Quik Stop, where gas was only 2.14 (wow...........). Quik Stop has letterhead like signage stating no reusable cups are allowed. The letterhead is EG GROUP signage and has the names of all of their banners on the sign. Curiously, it still uses the Kroger c-store logo and they even now present "Cumberland Farms" in Kroger-like font. The entire self serve hot food area has various signs up stating the items are "full serve" (nothing was out) then a second sign stating that two kinds of tornados are available "hot and ready" from the cashier. I went up to pay for gas since their pay at the pump is forever broken, and could not tell where those were being stored. They have a giant plastic shield up at each of the cash registers now with maybe 4 of 5 inches of "pass through" space at the bottom. The cashier is very "shielded." But then there is a big open space in the middle of the counter between the two registers.

[Alpha8472]

Gas stations all over are lowering gas prices. Fewer people are on the road, and these gas stations and convenience stores are losing customers. They are also losing employees. Speedway just gave workers a $2 temporary pay increase. People were quitting left and right.

The gas stations should require their workers to wear masks. Customers do not want even the possibility of workers coughing on the food. These businesses need to make the public confident about the safety of the food if they want to stay in business.

Also, gas stations need to have hand sanitizer at the gas pumps. I go out of my way to use gas stations with hand sanitizer. It is a necessity and I will patronize such gas stations over the ones without hand sanitizer. I also use the paper towels so I don't have to touch the gas pump or the pump keypad. It is also a good idea if businesses had kleenex at the credit card readers so that customers can use a kleenex to type on the credit card keypad.

[klkla]

Gas stations all over are lowering gas prices. Fewer people are on the road, and these gas stations and convenience stores are losing customers. They are also losing employees. Speedway just gave workers a $2 temporary pay increase. People were quitting left and right.

The price is simply related to the cost of crude oil, not the usual supply and demand model.

The gas stations should require their workers to wear masks. Customers do not want even the possibility of workers coughing on the food. These businesses need to make the public confident about the safety of the food if they want to stay in business.

Also, gas stations need to have hand sanitizer at the gas pumps. I go out of my way to use gas stations with hand sanitizer. It is a necessity and I will patronize such gas stations over the ones without hand sanitizer. I also use the paper towels so I don't have to touch the gas pump or the pump keypad. It is also a good idea if businesses had kleenex at the credit card readers so that customers can use a kleenex to type on the credit card keypad.

I agree that their employees should wear masks but we still don't have enough of them. Health care workers and infected people have the highest priority.

The hand sanitizers would also be great but they are also in high demand. Not only that people would steal them. Same thing with Kleenex.

I keep a box of Kleenex in my car for this very reason.

[storewanderer]

Gas stations all over are lowering gas prices. Fewer people are on the road, and these gas stations and convenience stores are losing customers. They are also losing employees. Speedway just gave workers a $2 temporary pay increase. People were quitting left and right.

The price is simply related to the cost of crude oil, not the usual supply and demand model.

The gas stations should require their workers to wear masks. Customers do not want even the possibility of workers coughing on the food. These businesses need to make the public confident about the safety of the food if they want to stay in business.

Also, gas stations need to have hand sanitizer at the gas pumps. I go out of my way to use gas stations with hand sanitizer. It is a necessity and I will patronize such gas stations over the ones without hand sanitizer. I also use the paper towels so I don't have to touch the gas pump or the pump keypad. It is also a good idea if businesses had kleenex at the credit card readers so that customers can use a kleenex to type on the credit card keypad.

I agree that their employees should wear masks but we still don't have enough of them. Health care workers and infected people have the highest priority.

The hand sanitizers would also be great but they are also in high demand. Not only that people would steal them. Same thing with Kleenex.

I keep a box of Kleenex in my car for this very reason.

Use the corner/edge of your card to touch the pinpad keys if possible then sanitize card later. Does not work for the touch screens (another reason why I don't like those).

[BillyGr]

Another possible option for buttons would be one of those rubber fingers you find that people usually use for counting money or other items (to help keep them from sticking together). Could be (fairly) easily pulled off into a small zip bag for later washing to sanitize.

No idea if that would work on a screen or not (you'd still be able to make the touch harder than with a card, but still not the skin contact)?

[storewanderer]

Maverik in the past week has cut all sites to the hours of 5 AM to 10 PM. Some of these locations are still busy after 10 PM (a couple here are near hospitals or warehouses where there is still traffic all night). This is a curious move to roll across all locations.

I wonder if Maverik has over-extended itself and is in trouble and needs to cut costs however it can. Their signage says they are closing early for sanitation but the two Maveriks I went to last night between 10:30 PM and 11:00 PM had no employee present and nothing was being sanitized.

There is major price pressure on gas right now and I suspect these gas stations are hurting badly due to less traffic.