You don’t have to live in Tazewell county to get upset about an article like this one. Sounds like more of the same costly government we are all getting sick of. Our taxes here in Tremont took a jump recently so the administrators of the #TremontSchool system could get their own cushy administration building and the coaches could get a new track and football field. The students, unfortunately, got very little for the multi-million dollar spending spree. Our jobs are being sent away, interest rates are climbing, petroleum refiners are raping us and our government continues to spend more than we can afford. This can’t go on forever —— can it?
Now isn’t that a bit hard to believe? “Gas stations do not make money on fuel sales.” This from the manager of Pekin Gas which now requires you to pre-pay for the privilege of pumping your own gas. Below is what I sent to the Pekin Times editorial in reply to that nonsense.
I understand nobody wants to have anything stolen from them —— but to boldly proclaim they don’t make money from gasoline sales is ridiculous. Knowing how completely that statement is exaggerated one must wonder about the veracity of the rest of their claims. Perhaps if gas stations returned to paying someone to pump the gas and get the money —— they wouldn’t have this problem.
It amazes me that an industry that keeps putting its’ hands deeper into my pockets has the audacity to moan about somebody stealing from them in return.
Theft is wrong in any context and the monopolies that are robbing Americans blind in the name of oil are now reaping what they sow. We understand you want your money, even deserve it —— but please don’t whine about not making any money from gasoline sales.
MjL 22 Aug 2006, 5:11 a.m.
I get my DSL service from #Verizon and it is terrible. Our internet connection drops out completely for several minutes at a time numerous times a day.
If you call about it you will get somebody in Bangladesh or New Delhi and they will ask you a lot of stupid questions or suggest you “re-seat” your network card or some such bull.
The recent fiasco with my web space (and I’m not entirely sure that is concluded until I get my next bill) was bad enough. Now the pirates want to gouge me again because they were supposed to give me a tax break. If our government would force some competition on these cretins, we might not have to put up with these piratical monopolies.
How about the balls on these people? It certainly takes a lot of ego to even begin to believe ANYBODY is worth the kind of money most CEOs drag in.
It would seem our obsession with corporate greed has reached the same low of the old robber barons proclaiming they had a right to own people. To see this statement defended by a major news outlet ought to extinguish any doubt about how network executives think about corporate greed.
The more the better and the fat cats want to convince you that losing your retirement and health benefits so these gluttons can live high is just another American privilege —— like pumping your own gas and bagging your own groceries.
Kind of some wrong thinking going on there......The article says that: “....Gas stations do not make money on fuel sales. We make most of our money by fountain and merchandise sales inside the store....” and also says:...“Due to the large number of gas drive-offs, we had no choice but to make pre-pay or debit/credit card only...”
Question: If gas is used as a draw to get people into your stores and you go to a system by which I pay for my gas without ever stepping foot inside the brick and mortar store, how does one expect to stay in business?....Hmm
The saying of cutting ones nose off to spite your own face seems appropriate here.
I travel past the Broadway/14th Street store everyday on my way to work....not much action going on there as compared to when the station was run as Huck’s.
Alan 22 Aug 2006, 8:19 p.m.
Good point Alan! I hadn’t thought about the drop in sales if you intentionally push people to pre-pay or pay at the pump. It doesn’t make much sense from that point of view either.
The only thing that caught my eye was the audacity of trying to convince anyone they don’t make money from the sale of fuel. As if they were selling the stuff at cost or something. I still say they can’t count on the “honor system” to collect their money and yet are obviously gouging people with artificially high fuel prices. They have no honor yet they expect their customers to act honorably. Right.
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