Convenience stores

[Jan]

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