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> The problem is, many such businesses have very old technology and must replace the entire pump at an estimated cost of up to $250,000 per station This feels

• nilkn 7y ago
  This is a bit of a tangent, but my parents owned a gas station in the late 90s and early 2000s. When they bought it, pay-at-the-pump was rare. Towards the end of their ownership, it was becoming common, and they were under a lot of pressure to install it. The installation was going to cost more than $250k on top of eating into the profit margin on gas sales (through credit card transaction fees) and discouraging folks from going into the store -- and in-store sales were by far the primary profit generator, as gas margins were low, zero, or negative depending on the constantly changing state of hyper-local competition and global gas prices. They opted to just sell the entire business instead and let it be someone else's problem.
• jandrese 7y ago
  Probably a lot harder than you would think because there are tons and tons of different versions of the pumps out there. You'd also need to get your solution certified for each model of pump. It could make sense if there is a particular model that is especially common and reasonably modern (so you aren't asking the owner to upgrade a pump that only has a couple of years left on it anyway), but my impression from driving around is that there are about as many gas pump designs as there are service stations.
• saalweachter 7y ago
  ... isn't that basically what a credit card skimmer is?