Gas stations where customers routinely queue up for fuel

[cpzilliacus]

There is a Shell station on Md. 198 (I-95 Exit 33, Sandy Spring Road) west of I-95 in Prince George's County (GSV here) where there is frequently a line of customers waiting for the pumps - almost shades of 1970's gas lines!

Not clear to me why this Shell is so popular, as there is a Shell at a slightly less-convenient location off of Md. 216, (I-95 Exit 35) east of I-95 in Howard County (here).

Motor fuel taxes are the same statewide (since Maryland legislators compel rural motorists to subsidize Baltimore and D.C.-area public transit systems), so that is not the issue. 

Any ideas?

[hotdogPi]

Maybe it's the cheapest one?

[AsphaltPlanet]

any Costco with a filling station around here has a perennial queue to fill up.

There is a gas station on a First Nations reserve near where I live that has a frequent queue as well.  It's prices for (ethanol free) fuel are excellent, however, so much so that it depresses the price in the closest town a 10 minute drive away.

[1995hoo]

cp, is the Shell near a Giant Food store? Maybe it's gas-point users. I go to the Shell nearest to our house even though the price per gallon is higher than the nearby Gulf and Liberty because the Giant gas points make it come out to be cheaper. I paid $3.13 a gallon for regular today.

Odd thing to me is how prices can vary in a short distance. The Shell I visited had prices of $3.239, $3.459, and $3.539. The other Shell a mile to the west on the same road wanted $3.539 for regular and $3.999 for super!

[ghYHZ]

any Costco with a filling station around here has a perennial queue to fill up.

Always a queue here at Superstore (Loblaws) and Sobeys........You save 3.5 cents per litre in grocery coupons. People will bypass the more convenient Irving, usually with no queue.

[hotdogPi]

One place I know has a 3.39 next to a 3.95. Both are visible at the same time.

[vdeane]

The BJs station in Henrietta always does because it's the cheapest in Rochester.  The local Stewart's (corner of Fort's Ferry Rd and Wade Rd Ext) sometimes does, especially if they have a sale, because they're the cheapest station in the county outside of Cohoes.

[hbelkins]

Kroger at Stanton, Ky.

[Pete from Boston]

Nothing remotely approaches the 1979 lines.  Those were hour-plus and vaguely apocalyptic.  Remember the red, yellow, and green rag flags (no, little, and plenty of gas respectively)?

The only stations I wait at all at here are AL Prime, which are the lowest-priced multi-station brand, and also have no credit surcharge.

The only major lines I see are at Stop & Shop, the supermarket whose gas outlets allow loyalty card holders to accrue discounts. I don't go there, so I mostly know it because the lines block parking lot flow. 

[cjk374]

The Shell station in Ruston, LA located next to Super-1 Foods is actually giving Murphy USA (read Wal-Mart gasoline) tight competition.  The price this morning was $3.019.

[Duke87]

Some people are REALLY creatures of habit and would sooner wait on line than go to a place different from where they normally go to avoid it. This popular station is probably merely located such that it is convenient to a lot of people's daily routines.

[briantroutman]

Nothing remotely approaches the 1979 lines.  Those were hour-plus and vaguely apocalyptic.

I always got the impression that the gas lines and rationing were worst in 1973 and that 1979 wasn't as bad in terms of shortages but far worse in terms of the price hike. Although I do remember watching a promo video for the 1980 diesel Oldsmobiles that began: "Today, fuel costs and availability are major concerns for all of us who drive."  Not having been born for half a decade afterward, I can't speak from experience, but does anyone recall?

[jp the roadgeek]

Any gas station in MA within 10 miles of the CT border, or in NJ within 10 miles of the NY border.

[cpzilliacus]

cp, is the Shell near a Giant Food store? Maybe it's gas-point users. I go to the Shell nearest to our house even though the price per gallon is higher than the nearby Gulf and Liberty because the Giant gas points make it come out to be cheaper. I paid $3.13 a gallon for regular today.

There is a Giant on U.S. 1 in Laurel and another one near Md. 198 and U.S. 29 in Burtonsville.  Not especially close.

Odd thing to me is how prices can vary in a short distance. The Shell I visited had prices of $3.239, $3.459, and $3.539. The other Shell a mile to the west on the same road wanted $3.539 for regular and $3.999 for super!

I don't think it's a price issue.

[cpzilliacus]

Nothing remotely approaches the 1979 lines.  Those were hour-plus and vaguely apocalyptic.

I always got the impression that the gas lines and rationing were worst in 1973 and that 1979 wasn't as bad in terms of shortages but far worse in terms of the price hike. Although I do remember watching a promo video for the 1980 diesel Oldsmobiles that began: "Today, fuel costs and availability are major concerns for all of us who drive."  Not having been born for half a decade afterward, I can't speak from experience, but does anyone recall?

There were "price shocks" in both 1973 and 1978. 

That Olds Diesel would run for between 30,000 and 50,000 miles and then break down and strand its owner.

[allniter89]

Nothing remotely approaches the 1979 lines.  Those were hour-plus and vaguely apocalyptic.

I always got the impression that the gas lines and rationing were worst in 1973 and that 1979 wasn't as bad in terms of shortages but far worse in terms of the price hike. Although I do remember watching a promo video for the 1980 diesel Oldsmobiles that began: "Today, fuel costs and availability are major concerns for all of us who drive."  Not having been born for half a decade afterward, I can't speak from experience, but does anyone recall?

There were "prince shocks" in both 1973 and 1978. 

That Olds Diesel would run for between 30,000 and 50,000 miles and then break down and strand its owner.

I worked at Kayo gas stations around Dover, DE in 1973. We would open at 0600 and there would be a long line of cars waiting for us. We would pump gas til the tanks went dry, usually early afternoon then close until the next a.m. and repeat the routine. Gas was delivered overnite with 2 armed guys in the truck. I remember there were even/odd license number restrictions & also limits on the number of gallons you could buy.

[briantroutman]

That Olds Diesel would run for between 30,000 and 50,000 miles and then break down and strand its owner.

Yes, my family had an '81 Custom Cruiser with the 5.7-liter diesel. I don't think it made it to the 75K mark.

[Pete from Boston]

Nothing remotely approaches the 1979 lines.  Those were hour-plus and vaguely apocalyptic.

I always got the impression that the gas lines and rationing were worst in 1973 and that 1979 wasn't as bad in terms of shortages but far worse in terms of the price hike. Although I do remember watching a promo video for the 1980 diesel Oldsmobiles that began: "Today, fuel costs and availability are major concerns for all of us who drive."  Not having been born for half a decade afterward, I can't speak from experience, but does anyone recall?

Perhaps 1973 was worse, but I have no meaningful memory of those.

[PHLBOS]

Nothing remotely approaches the 1979 lines.  Those were hour-plus and vaguely apocalyptic.

I always got the impression that the gas lines and rationing were worst in 1973 and that 1979 wasn't as bad in terms of shortages but far worse in terms of the price hike.

I know for a fact that the supply issues surrounding at least the '79 price shocks were indeed hyped/fabricated.  Back then ('79), my father worked as an engineer aboard a Getty oil tanker.  There were times that they couldn't unload their supply because there was no place to store them (all were full) and yet there were gas lines at the pumps and people preaching shortage(s).

The above was what convinced me that the so-called energy crisis, at least the 2nd one, was mostly fabricated lies.  The only thing that was real/true were the price spikes.

Anyway, back to the topic at hand; the Pilot station just off Exit 1 off I-84 in Sturbridge, MA always has lines.  My brother refers to that station as one that's still stuck in 1974 in terms of the gas lines.

[Pete from Boston]

The last time I really saw this sort of thing was in the week after Sandy in 2012.  Many stations didn't have electricity, and many just weren't getting deliveries, so there were lines of dozens of cars all over the place, along with a return of "no gas" sandwich boards. 

Granted, this is outside the "routine" in the thread topic, but it was the closest to "energy crisis" lines I've seen since 1979. 

[1995hoo]

The last time I really saw this sort of thing was in the week after Sandy in 2012.  Many stations didn't have electricity, and many just weren't getting deliveries, so there were lines of dozens of cars all over the place, along with a return of "no gas" sandwich boards. 

Granted, this is outside the "routine" in the thread topic, but it was the closest to "energy crisis" lines I've seen since 1979. 

I remember horrible gas lines in Durham, NC, after Hurricane Fran in 1996, again due to power outages. I remember the TV news (my apartment never lost power) interviewing some absolute moron woman who was complaining the lines were so long she ran out of gas while waiting. 

To go back to the "routine" scenario, one situation where I routinely see people lining up at a particular gas station is in the week after snow melts when one gas station has an on-site car wash, especially if you get a discount on a wash when you buy gas, and other nearby stations don't have car washes. People will line up at the one with the wash to buy gas and then line up again for the car wash. If there's no discount on a wash, it might make more sense to go to a nearby station for the gas and then go wait on line for the wash, but I understand why some people consider that inconvenient.

[DandyDan]

I've never seen anyone waiting to pump gas at the gas station since 9-11.  There's a gas station near me in Bellevue, NE that has exactly 4 pumps and I've never seen it where all 4 were being used at once, but OTOH, I don't know how that one compares to any other nearby gas stations on price.

[agentsteel53]

there is a Costco near my house that has a gas station with horrendously long lines.

at some point, saving 10c/gallon can't possibly be worth the time investment...

[US71]

There are a couple stations here where people queue up, but mostly because customers pull up to the closest pump and block other customers. OR you have people with tanks on opposite sides and they block the pumps by facing each other, but leaving the middle blocked.

[Duke87]

The last time I really saw this sort of thing was in the week after Sandy in 2012.  Many stations didn't have electricity, and many just weren't getting deliveries, so there were lines of dozens of cars all over the place, along with a return of "no gas" sandwich boards.

What is interesting is how locally specific that was. Connecticut got hit by Sandy just as well as New York, but Connecticut's gas supply issues stopped once the power started getting restored to more people. New York had zero supply issues immediately after the storm (I filled up that Tuesday night and the station had plenty of gas with no one buying it) but all of a sudden had a crisis once people started resuming their daily routines and gas stations realized "oh shit, our supply chain has been interrupted".

Indeed, that was the difference: most of the terminals in NYC and Long Island where fuel is delivered by tanker were either completely out of commission or operating at reduced capacity after the storm, thanks to flooding. The terminals in Connecticut weathered the storm better for whatever reason.