A northen California Answermug friend informed me that you are not allowed to pump your own gas in Oregon. Any other state that smart?

Joisey? Good for them! Thank you for your reply and Happy Wednesday to thee E! :)

Thank you for your reply, the graphic and the link m'dear. I tried it once and wasn't very good at it so it's something Jim always does. I don't know what happened but the nozzle "jumped" out of the hole and gas sprayed a bit. I see old ladies like me do it with no problem. I guess I just don't have the knack for it! Happy Wednesday to thee SP! :)

I don't know if you read the link in my answer, but some Oregonians have complained because they like having an attendant pump their gas. For example, people with physical disabilities find the task difficult. They are worried that allowing self-serve will drive out full-service because of cost competition (as it has in most areas).

So you're not alone in your preference.

The states with self-service stations also offer full service. Due to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), federal law requires equal accessibility for all. That means that the full-service option cannot be taken away, which makes this a non-issue. This post was edited by Stu Spelling Bee at December 4, 2019 10:03 AM MST

You may be correct about the law, but based on real-world observation, I don't think this is practically true.

Asking the already-overworked cashier at the Circle-K to stop helping the line of 20 customers to assist the one disable/elderly customer with pumping gas is not a realistic scenario, even if the ADA technically mandates it.

And, yes, there are some stations which do offer full service. But they are a tiny fraction of the overall market, which suggests the competitive pressures of the gasoline retailing industry make it difficult to support full-service lanes.

Should state governments mandate full-service lanes? That's a contestable question about which reasonable people can have different opinions. But I don't think the ADA makes the issue moot.

That's not the case where I have mostly lived and driven - Connecticut, Florida, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania. Every gas station I have seen offers both full- and self-service. They pay the attendants as part of the cost of doing business. In general, people/business owners try to do the right thing and avoid violating the law and driving away potential customers. If that were not the case, then why isn't self-service available in New Jersey and Oregon? This post was edited by Stu Spelling Bee at December 4, 2019 5:54 AM MST

OK, we have had markedly different personal experiences in this regard. I've mostly lived in western North America where gas stations tend to be massive self-serve operations minimally staffed by what are essentially minimum-wage retail clerks. In some places with high crime rates, the gas station "attendants" are literally separated from their customers by bulletproof glass enclosures.

Naturally, we would draw different conclusions about how the law and market conditions affect the industry.

I have seen that here in NYC as well, but it doesn't seem to be much of an issue. And I think it's ridiculous to outlaw self-service, which is not at all harmful to people. To my mind, the laws in NJ and Oregon are stupid.

Perhaps a better solution would be to require all gasoline stations to offer full service so that people
who have difficulties pumping their own gas have access.

Then each station owner could figure out how to handle the economics and no station which offered
full service would be at a competitive disadvantage.

As I said above, this is a subject reasonable people can disagree about. This post was edited by SaltyPebble at December 4, 2019 12:10 PM MST

It may be a good idea to have an attendant on hand...but who is going to pay for the attendant?

In the absence of an explicit full-service lane (with significantly higher prices than self-serve), the usual way to finance the attendant is to cross-subsidize the service by raising other prices.

But suppose I'm running my Acme Gas station, and I charge $3.05 per gallon and $1.89 for a 20-oz Coke, which covers my costs including an on-call attendant. Let's also suppose the Gas-and-Go on the other street corner does NOT have an attendant, so the owner can charge $2.99 for gas and $1.69 for the 20-oz Coke. How long do you think I'll be able to keep paying an attendant and charging higher prices?

You may argue that some people will be willing to pay the higher price for the added convenience, or simply won't notice the price difference enough to care.

My counterargument to that is to observe who the world's largest retailer is (Wal-Mart) and how they became that way (by sacrificing all other values on the altar of low price). 

One gallon petrol is $8 in England plus now if you stop on our motirways where you may be desperate for fuel and cant  get off the motorway ....it's called legal theft or Parasiteing on the public when they have very little ithe options to get fuel...
Your fuel is a third of what our government thives of of us mugs over here..

I was unaware that you hail from England. I'm sure there are significant differences between the North American and UK gasoline markets.

Some people are handicapped.

Old and ill permanently and on occasions as well...it's a good idea to have someone on hand to assist these ,but to enforce laws about it is rediculous I think....