Gas Stations and Coronavirus

Alpha8472
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Gas Stations and Coronavirus

Post by Alpha8472 »

Everyone seems to be very germaphobic now even at gas stations.

I passed by a Shell gas station advertising gas mitts and hand sanitizer. They look like giant disposable plastic mittens. Yes, people are having trouble finding gloves so these free gas mittens are attracting people like crazy. The station also had hand santizer stations on the pillars. The gas was more expensive than other places, but people seem to be willing to pay to get the free mittens.

Gas stations are seeing a drop in gas sales, so the only way to survive is to somehow get people into the stores to buy something. Keeping the mitts inside is a good idea.
TW-Upstate NY
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Re: Gas Stations and Coronavirus

Post by TW-Upstate NY »

I feel very fortunate where I am because there is at least one place that is full-service AND they are usually the lowest price of the three stations pretty much right in a row. I think the last time I pumped my own gas was almost two months ago. On the other hand, I'm doing virtually no driving. Bought a brand new vehicle the end of February and have less than 1000 miles on it.
BillyGr
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Re: Gas Stations and Coronavirus

Post by BillyGr »

TW-Upstate NY wrote: May 7th, 2020, 11:18 am I feel very fortunate where I am because there is at least one place that is full-service AND they are usually the lowest price of the three stations pretty much right in a row. I think the last time I pumped my own gas was almost two months ago. On the other hand, I'm doing virtually no driving. Bought a brand new vehicle the end of February and have less than 1000 miles on it.
How did you manage to get the one full service station still left in NY? ;) - OK, there's probably more than one but not that many.

Unlike, for some strange reason Bennington, VT which has (or used to) several (they also at one point had about 5-6 Mobil/Exxon stations in a reasonably small town which also seemed odd, when we had a card for those brands for a work vehicle, which was always filled there when in town as it was a better deal than any of the NY stations you would pass en route).

But with the topic, I've only done gas a couple times in the last few weeks and didn't have any issues with it - maybe handling all that cash to pay for stuff all the time helps the body? ;)
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Re: Gas Stations and Coronavirus

Post by storewanderer »

I bought gas at EG Group Quik Stop despite saying I would not be returning and they actually had paper towels outside and it looked like they had cleaned the pumps. The gas pump did not prompt for zip code anymore either so once you answered the loyalty card yes/no question that was it and you were pumping.

The receipt is weird as there is a line on it that says "AVS: U (No data from issuer/Authorization System)"

Maybe it was just a system error and not intentionally removed.
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Re: Gas Stations and Coronavirus

Post by TW-Upstate NY »

BillyGr wrote: May 7th, 2020, 5:27 pm How did you manage to get the one full service station still left in NY? ;) - OK, there's probably more than one but not that many.
Without naming it all I'll say is it's located in Amsterdam and is part of a strip of stations which includes a Fastrac and Stewart's.
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Re: Gas Stations and Coronavirus

Post by Alpha8472 »

Gas stations do not have to have EMV chip acceptance at the pump until April 2021. Visa has delayed the deadline from October 2020 to April of the next year.

Very few gas stations have EMV at the pump in California. The only place I have seen it is at Safeway gas stations. I saw a Chevron station recently replace all of the gas pumps, but the station still has not added EMV at the pump. It really must be expensive or difficult to upgrade. To upgrade some stations would mean ripping out and replacing all gas pumps. Many gas stations are on the verge of closing down due to the drop off in business.

I have heard some gas station operators say that the only profitable part of the gas station was the auto repair shop. It kept the station profitable. Gas sales barely pay the rent at most locations. You need a high volume of purchases at the convenience store to make a profit.

I avoid using magnetic swipe cards at gas stations due to the high risk of skimmers and also coronavirus.

I usually try to pay by phone. If a gas pump takes Google Pay or Samsung Pay, I use that. If that is not available I use the gas app for that gas station. ExxonMobil and Shell have apps where you can pay by phone and never need to touch the gas pump. They both have gas rewards or gas discount programs.
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Re: Gas Stations and Coronavirus

Post by storewanderer »

Alpha8472 wrote: May 9th, 2020, 8:20 pm Gas stations do not have to have EMV chip acceptance at the pump until April 2021. Visa has delayed the deadline from October 2020 to April of the next year.

Very few gas stations have EMV at the pump in California. The only place I have seen it is at Safeway gas stations. I saw a Chevron station recently replace all of the gas pumps, but the station still has not added EMV at the pump. It really must be expensive or difficult to upgrade. To upgrade some stations would mean ripping out and replacing all gas pumps. Many gas stations are on the verge of closing down due to the drop off in business.

I have heard some gas station operators say that the only profitable part of the gas station was the auto repair shop. It kept the station profitable. Gas sales barely pay the rent at most locations. You need a high volume of purchases at the convenience store to make a profit.

I avoid using magnetic swipe cards at gas stations due to the high risk of skimmers and also coronavirus.

I usually try to pay by phone. If a gas pump takes Google Pay or Samsung Pay, I use that. If that is not available I use the gas app for that gas station. ExxonMobil and Shell have apps where you can pay by phone and never need to touch the gas pump. They both have gas rewards or gas discount programs.
All of the corporate owned Chevrons have EMV at the pump now (and Google Pay/Apple Pay). All of the Speedway corporate run sites have EMV at the pump now (but not the Speedway Express ones). All of the Kroger operated gas stations have it too. It is getting there, slowly.

I have seen a couple 76 locations with it, and a couple Mobil locations. Numerous stations have the right hardware and for whatever reason can't be bothered to do the software update (which requires you to call out a technician, $$) to activate the EMV. In some cases the software is not available yet but in a number of cases (such as Shell) not only is the software available but Shell will pay the station $4,000 upon its first EMV transaction processed if they activate by a certain date this month- yet many stations still won't do the software update.
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Re: Gas Stations and Coronavirus

Post by Alpha8472 »

All the Chevron stations in the San Francisco Bay Area seem to be mostly franchise. You can never find an EMV gas pump in this area. I have only seen 1 Shell Station with EMV at the pump. It was at a very busy Shell Station in Oakland, California and one of the EMV readers has been broken for what seems like an eternity. Perhaps they are too cheap to call a technician.
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Re: Gas Stations and Coronavirus

Post by storewanderer »

There are actually quite a few corporate Chevron stations in the bay area, but it is not the majority. But all of them should have EMV at the pump and also have Tap at the pump.

Basically any with a 10-15 year old+ Extra Mile Store, are corporate (those pre-date when Extra Mile started to sell franchises on a wide scale). The newer or more recently converted Extra Mile Stores are mostly franchises.

The other tip off of a corporate Chevron is there is no cash price/credit price for gas. All payment types are the same high price.

Some in the general Concord/Pleasant Hill/San Ramon corridor that are corporate Chevrons are:
Alamo (by the Safeway)
1700 Mt Diablo Walnut Creek
1805 Ygnacio Valley Rd Walnut Creek
3632 Mt. Diablo Lafayette
11 Orinda Way Orinda
4295 Clayton Concord
795 Oak Grove Concord
18060 San Ramon Valley Road San Ramon (this was the first station of any brand in the western US to have "tap" pumps back when Apple Pay debuted)
Alpha8472
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Re: Gas Stations and Coronavirus

Post by Alpha8472 »

I finally saw the EMV chip readers at the pump. I was shocked. Every single corporate Chevron had outrageously high prices. Not all of them had the Extra Mile convenience store. However, many of them did have auto repair. Some of them looked quite rundown with a small convenience store.
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