I to some extent agree with the originator of this post, it is annoying and selfish of people to occupy a pump when they only want a few other items.They usually too lazy to walk from the allocated car park spaces and then read all the magazines and wander arround like sheep as if they have all the time in the world.At our local garage, partly due to poor layout of pumps, the que can block the highway with vehicles unable to get to a pump for the abandoned vehicles whilst their drivers are shopping for items other than fuel. Rather than push my blood pressure up I drive away find an empty forecourt somewhere else.
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Exactly what I do.
No I'm not a sad git, and I got what I wanted for Christmas. I just wanted to drop the proverbial pebble in the pond and see the ripples. Some of you are obvious candidates for this behaviour, others bite too easily. It was a good overall response,though some did get a bit personal. Maybe I hit a nerve. Just chill as someone said.
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wanted to drop the proverbial pebble in the pond and see the ripples. Some of you are obvious candidates for this behaviour, others bite too easily.
What, have we a self confessed troll here? Is that a first?
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He has been reading the famous tome "How to liven up an internet forum - a Trolls guide" by that famous author Altea Ego
(available in the two for 99p end bin at WH Smiths)
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Now now boys, you've missed your comical vocation in life. Thats another rib gone!
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IMHO the OP has a valid point. The problem of course is the layout of the fuel station in that the driver has to leave his car occupying a pump as there is nowhere else to move to. In many French service stations after filling up you drive forward to parking spaces at the front of the shop where you pay.
A similar situation to the original point is my local Tesco Express where many times the woman in front who is being served suddenly remembers a couple of other items she needs, and we all stand waiting while she goes off to find them.
wemyss
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If you try and move out of the pump areas in certain bits of where I live without paying, you can suddenly be surrounded by armed trolley dollies.
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Scuse me while the third glass of a Rocha 20 year old tawny kicks in, but did you say you have Armed BA stewardess's working at your local tesco?
no wonder all the other shops closed down.
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They've got to do something to sub the strike pay.
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PU
Don't let those gun-toting dogs out; a forecourt is no place for a close-quarters firefight...
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I'd never thought of that, I only fuel the firm's car in Tesco (that really good premium petrol that Honda IMAs thrive on) No guns or dogs.
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"Selfish"
"I and many others just want to fill up and go." (stuff what the rest of the world wants to do)
"Surely you truckers must get irrate at this." (?Irate or irritated? Trying to rally support?)
"the lazy elements of society who wont [sic] walk the length of their own backside"
"arrogant, selfish minority," (take it you have conducted an exhaustive survey to substantiate your claim, and if it is a minority, how do they cause such far reaching problems).
"though some did get a bit personal."
Try reading your post again. Are you really surprised. And as for "being a candidate for this behaviour". If they sell it why shouldn't I buy it? Would you feel better if I put 2 litres of fuel in to justify my occupation of this "valuable" space on the forecourt?
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See what I mean. If the cap fits.....
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I like to stir a debate<<
You go right ahead son.
In your own time, we'll be glad to help out.
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If the cap fits.....
Then it belongs to your car and not someone else's who just happened to leave it on the fuel pump.
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If there are a pair of driving gloves with it, its mine!
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All this brings back memories of our local, the last independent petrol station in my home town - now long gone, land redeveloped into 3 storey apartment blocks (Loads of space underground where the tanks used to be, why not build parking spaces there? Doh! But I digress..)
According to HJ it's better in the long run to buy Shell or Texaco for the detergents - higher price but better economy. It was a Texaco station, but for 3p a gallon and a 1 mile drive to the local Sainsbury's, market forces (local meanies) sealed its fate.
Way back in 1983 I did 9 hours a week while still at school to pay for my (one) driving lesson a week. (60p an hour was slave labour even then, but I didn't get hit for NI or tax!) The range of goods on offer was impressive - everything from garden furniture to toiletries and even the revolutionary idea of condoms, which didn't half increase Friday night trade. One oldish chap rushed in one night to buy a litre of Havoline (oil) and a pack of 12 (what he called) "preventatives" which had us in hysterics till the end of the shift.
I seem to remember that the layout unusually did allow one car to park at each pump and then drive off without holding anyone up, but there were pump attendants (back in the days when buses had conductors, Fords were rear wheel drive and you'd get deported to Australia for scrumping...)
It's your local - use it or lose it!
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I think the thread of my post has been missed. I agree that in the country these shops are a lifeline and these garages do not get the traffic to cause queuing into them. But on a 12 mile journey into London I have counted 12 petrol stations that have closed in recent years. Which means that in the "smoke" we are cramming into less space for our fuel. Come up in the rush hour and you'll see queues onto most roads because of explanation I gave in the first place.
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I think the point was made earlier. We live in a free market economy, there's no money in petrol sales alone so owners (be they corporate or private) have to diversify in to selling other stuff. People being lazy take the least line of resistance. I go to a garage for three reasons to buy a single of item or to buy fuel and browse/socialise or to fill up and buy an essential.
In scenario
1. I park off the forecourt
2 I park by the pumps
3 I park by the pumps and people have to wait (I end up waiting myself sometimes for someone to do a number 3 - it doesn't worry me.)
I am in control of my life so I can fill my car up when I want to rather when my tank is empty,
so I feel when I want to and am able to afford to wait if I need to, or drive past if its busy. Move to the country and downshift.
Edited by Pugugly {P} on 03/01/2008 at 11:20
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I presume Pugugly that you condone this behaviour. As you are so busy on the computer all day, you probably fill up in the dead of night.
Some of us have jobs, deadlines and appointments to get to. But there are serious consequences.
In the south east, it is commonplace for emergency vehicles to use petrol stations as part of their modernisation. And while they are in the queue they are unavailable for emergency calls. Think about time delays responding to emergencies. I presume it is the case elsewhere because it is good market economics.
So next time your head is stuck into the numerous magazines that you feel is your right to do while blocking the forecourt I wish you would consider the following:
1) Hope that your house is not on fire
2) That it is not being burgled
3) Or God forbid, one of your family does not need an ambulance.
4) Or the multi vehicle pile up down the road doesn't require all three.
Because, you might, just might, be blocking one of these vehicles in, without noticing it. Browsing around to your hearts content.
Apart from the fact that I, as tail end Charlie, could be stationary on a fast A road waiting to be rear ended by a foreign artic. Or it could be you. How safe is that.
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OK I'll consider all of the above. By the way filled up this morning with Texaco's best brew from our village garage, wandered aimlessly around the store bought 2 pints of milk a Crunchie an a battery for my smoke alarm (by sheer coincidence !) and no your chaos theory
didn't materialise - mind you not many butterflies around today due to the icy blast from the East. I may have slightly blocked in a rusty Transit owned by the local traveller commune, but they like me are at peace with the world !
Edited by Pugugly {P} on 03/01/2008 at 15:28
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I'm sorry, but when will the penny drop with this one. You have this luxury coming from a village community. There just isn't the level of traffic to interfere with your way of life. So you have an excuse. I invite you to use this village mentality in the largest city to you and see where that gets you. I bet you don't get road rage there either. My gripe is with this behaviour in the largest towns and cities, where it IS unacceptable.
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I have to confess to teasing you a bit. Yes I know what it like in towns and cities - I do get out now and again you know ! - if only to fund my nest luxo-barge.
But to be honest you wouldn't catch me queueing on a road to get fuelled up either.
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They smell of diesel though !
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So do mine. I've lost my driving gloves!
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What is the point of whingeing about this? Is it going to change anything?
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A perfect forecourt layout would probably be a half mile long herringbone pattern with an automated Chip and Pin or Cash-payment terminal for every 6 pumps and a long queue round the outside. Maybe even an airport-style carousel to propel cars round, engines off, till they reach the front of the queue.
However, the advantages for the operators of awkward forecourt layouts and long queues is that people associate a queue with a popular, good value product, so we fold our arms and accept it, especially in Britain where queueing is a national pastime! Drive to the supermarket, see a long queue for petrol and either sit and wait or, to heck with it, go in and do the monthly shop. It's win/win for the supermarket.
The continued popularity of supermarket petrol stations continues to squeeze the small independent operators out of business. Also, cars use 40% less petrol than a generation ago, so we buy less of the stuff and travel further before filling up. And, of course, all businesses inside the Congestion Charge Zone are having to hike prices and lose trade.
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No filling station should be given planning permission for a mini-market unless, as a condition of the planning, they provide at least 10 off pump parking spaces. They should also run a fuel only till, so that one is not queuing behind people with baskets of pies popcorn and lurid fizzy drinks.
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My home town , 50,000 or so population so not small ,in desirable West Sussex commuterland used to have six petrol stations when I moved there four years ago.
It now has two , Tesco runs the shop (but its an Esso forecourt) and Sainsburys , three are now blocks of flats and one gave up selling petrol as a bad job being about a quarter mile from Sainsburys.
It also concerns me how the supermarket prices are no longer any cheaper than the majors as they have no competition.
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