Convenience stores

[Fritz Juengling]

Back when I was a kid, my gramma called those gas stations 'service
stations.'  Of course, back in the olden days, they actually provided
services--pumped your gas, cleaned your windshield, checked the oil (and
dropped in a can), and even did repairs.  I rarely hear that term anymore.
Fritz


> In Iowa (where you can not only pump your own gas, but set the little
> catches
> so it pumps itself while you're cleaning the windshield, etc., something
> I missed badly while traveling in NH? IL? KY? (can't remember, but you
> couldn't do it there), there is a convergence between service/gas stations
> and convenience stores. It is getting hard to find gas pumps here that do
> not also have a convenience store (whether or not you pay with a credit
> card at the pump or go inside to do so). Distinctions between the two
> are blurring. I'm sure this is much more general. Just as I'm sure that
> there are three times more of these things than anyone needs. Most often
> they seem to be called "convenience stores" (yawn), but gas station or
> service station would be readily understood and the dying "filling station"
> even though these places have few or no services, and what we understood
> by gas station in the 50's in southern California are exeedingly few and
> far between. -Jan
>