Older gas stations struggle to keep up with changing times
At Guy’s Auto Service in Warren County, the driver leaves Route 57 and steps into 1957.
At the old-time filling station in Washington Borough, three generations of guys named Guy still dispense gas from a fluores cent green pump straight out of “Happy Days,” still clean the windshields and provide free air and still host a coffee klatch of long- time locals who debate the topics of the day.
Being the owner of an old-time independent gas station means being a survivor, but the record high cost of gas is causing a problem that mom-and-pop gas stations like Guy’s couldn’t have foreseen years ago: Their old analog pump meters won’t go above $3.99 per gallon or $99.99 for a total purchase.
“I imagine the guy who designed the pump said, ‘What the hell, let’s put on some outrageous price — four bucks. It will never get to that,’” loyal Guy’s customer Pete Gaylord noted during a break from getting his car serviced.
Diesel fuel and premium gasoline already are above the magic $4 mark in New Jersey, one of the cheapest states in America for gas.
Nationally, the average price for a gallon of gasoline was nearly $3.79 yesterday, while diesel was selling for an average of just over $4.48 a gallon, according to AAA.
In New Jersey, a gallon of gas cost an average of $3.64, with a gal lon of premium gas just more than $4.05 and diesel fuel nearly $4.47.
Already hit by low profit mar gins and weary from expensive regulations, America’s mom-and-pops now must decide whether it is worth it to buy new pumps or up grade the spinning mechanical me ters into digital ones.
“The little guy, with all our overhead and stuff, it’s getting tough,” said Guy Burd, 32, who runs the 86-year-old filling station with his dad and grandfather.
Up to 8,500 of America’s 170,000 service stations have meters that need to be fixed — about 17,000 individual pumps, estimated Bob Renkes, executive vice president of the Petroleum Equipment Institute of Tulsa, Okla.
New machines cost upwards of $10,000, but owners at stations such as Guy’s are opting for a cheaper option — retrofitting the mechanical meters with higher numbers, a process that costs upwards of $500.
But that option also can raise the risk of a breakdown.
“You don’t see too many ‘55 Corvettes on the road and you don’t see too many of these,” said Michael Santos, superintendent of Warren County’s weights and measures department. “From a weights and measures standpoint, there are more things that can go wrong with the moving parts.”
The price of fixing the meters jumped in the past three years be cause old pumps are being phased out for electronic ones and demand for refurbished meters is down, said Al Eichorn, vice president of PMP Corp., which makes the mechanical meters. Yet, the Avon, Conn., company had such an explosion of requests to make changes, they hired extra employees who are working overtime, Eichorn said. And there is still a 14-week backlog of orders, Eichorn said.
To deal with the problem, some states are allowing half- pricing — displaying the price for a half-gallon of gas, then dou bling the price shown on the meter, provided stations post signs telling customers the final price is twice what the pump meter indicates.
At Kozimor’s Garage on Route 46 in Independence Township, near Hackettstown, diesel fuel is dispensed on an analog pump that only goes up to $3.99 — but costs 70 cents more. While they wait for the arrival of new parts, proprietors there are using a hand-held calculator to compute the final price.
Ray Kozimor, whose family has run the garage since 1946, said the old pump was just up graded in September to allow sales of up to $3.99.
“The guy laughed and said, ‘I don’t think it will get to $4,’” Ko zimor said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report. Mike Frassinelli may be reached at mfrassinelli@starled ger.com or (908) 475-1218.
