Impetus: Macon gas station runs promotion where cash buyers could get regular unleaded for 99¢ a gallon, resulting in massive lines, long waits, frustrated customers and ultimately police intervention
A few years ago, I went up to visit my parents, and I was driving around running some errands with my dad. His tank was running low, so he said he needed to get gas, and proceeded to go to a station that he preferred, because it was the cheapest place. We arrive at the gas station, and it’s an eight-pump station that is in fact ten cents cheaper than everywhere else, but every single pump is occupied, and there were a few other cars precariously circling the premises like a hungry shark stalking an opening.
My dad said that this was the norm. I said that if he’s really hard up on the dollar he’ll save by going to this station as opposed to the numerous alternatives surrounding the area, I’d be happy to give him a dollar to go somewhere else. Since I was the one driving anyway, we went to the Shell station down the street that was completely open, filled up, and was right back on track doing our own things, as opposed to joining the feeding frenzy at the cheap station, risking road rage, headache and fender benders all in the sake of saving, a literal dollar for ten gallons of unleaded.
Time, is worth more than money. Piece of mind, is also worth more than money. Definitively, for both. And it astounds me that there are people that don’t seem to understand this.