and they seem to have mostly disappeared. Run out of business, or bought out, I don't know.
It's also possible they simply couldn't hang in there with increased costs of certifications, environmental tests to prove the tanks weren't leaking, who knows. I don't.
https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/vintage-shots-from-days-gone-by.428585/page-6673
That was the plan Jesse. Put those evil Mom and Pop establishments out of business. No more independent owned businesses any more. We are watching the American dream dissolve right before our eyes.
ReplyDeletethe only place I have seen small service stations still existing was in Madison New Jersey, when my son was going to college there.
ReplyDeletemy hometown didnt have a traffic light, but in the 80s there were three service stations on the square, those buildings are all still there, one is a coffee shop, one is a lawyers office and the other is a real estate office.
why the old stations get abandoned and another new one built , usually within sight up the road, is a mystery to me.
the old tanks had to be replaced, but thats part of the cost of having that kind of business. testing to see if they are leaking is not that expensive,about $3000, the company I work for does it. decontaminating the soil and groundwater after it leaks IS very expensive, we do that too, usually $500-900K over about 5 years.
a half million to a million? Wow!
DeleteThirty-odd years ago I knew the proprietor of one of those stations, a nice fellow and a good mechanic. A real master body worker who turned me on to old shower stalls as an ideal material for rust repair! But what drove him out of the gas business was not some nasty state cabal but the petroleum distributor. The major oil companies did not want independent gas stations, and priced them out of the market or simply refused to deliver on time, so his pumps were too often empty.
ReplyDeleteIt's true also that there are other regulatory obstacles such as tank leakage, which are difficult for mechanics to handle. What we see around here (rural Vermont) is not the loss of small independent mechanics, but a change in business model. They generally don't sell gas. The gas stations are mostly convenience stores, because the gas business is a very small margin operation. They make their money on snacks and lottery tickets, and use the tiny profit (or even sometimes small loss) on gas to bring the customers in. A good mechanic doesn't need that hassle. Around here, at least, there are plenty of independent businesses.
As Userbronco points out, the cost of replacing tanks before they leak is not enormous. The cost of doing it after is, and the cost to the environment if they do is quite real in areas where groundwater is depended on. This is not some nanny-state nonsense instituted to make people's lives difficult. Gasoline in your well is no joke.
There are plenty of things to gripe about, and plenty of things that are done wrong and done to excess, no doubt, but I think we should be careful how we characterize people's motives.