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Most gas stations seem offensive and predatory in the items they offer customers. I understand freedom of choice and business models but the entire system is pl

Most gas stations seem offensive and predatory in the items they offer customers. I understand freedom of choice and business models but the entire system is plagued by unhealthy and potentially dangerous products (eg random herbal supplements, synthetic cannabinoids etc). And more than half of gas stations in major cities don’t have bathrooms (people abuse them obviously). And the workers are often underpaid. Verse a system that offers fair pricing, healthy options, positive re-enforcement, incentivizes public facing employees to learn CPR and first aid, paying higher wages to help upward mobility and savings, creating a place for community interaction. Nope, it’s just sugar, cigarettes, “rhino” pills, alcohol, mistreated underpaid employees living a fraction of their potential, dirtiness and no bathrooms.

driverdan 7y ago
> Most gas stations seem offensive and predatory in the items they offer customers. Convenience stores sell what customers want. If those items didn't sell or customers had a preference for something else then they'd change. > And the workers are often underpaid. No such thing. So long as someone is willing to work for a certain wage they're getting paid exactly what they should be.
- atonse 7y ago
  Found our Robber Baron mentality right here. Nobody is "willing" to work at an un-livable wage. Forced is probably a better term. Not forced by their employer, but by circumstance.
  - strathmeyer 7y ago
    Gee if the wage is un-livable how are they surviving?
    - mschuster91 7y ago
      Working two or more jobs and/or being subsidized by government assistance (food stamps, or in Germany Hartz IV).
Nasrudith 7y ago
Your assumption that they should try to promote things paternalistically is the really weird assumption from my perspective. Positive reinforcement sounds like the sort of thing which would creep out customers and employees like a company policy that all transactions are closed by hugs. In whole those requests aren't a cohesive strategy, or even a collection of separate ones "competing" for balance but a wish list. Paying higher wages to ensure quality of workers for lessened expenses or better effective throughput is a strategy. Just paying higher wages isn't a strategy, it is an out of context goal for a business model. At best it would be an alternate profit distribution which would make it and be peripheral to what makes an enterprise work. Starting with the end in mind is a good concept but a viable path to get there is needed or else it will end in failure and tears. On another note fair prices aren't a real thing economically. Despite efforts from medieval times to failed Communist attempts at solving a valuation problem. Fair is a judgement which may be anywhere from well informed to utterly insane.

driverdan 7y ago

> Most gas stations seem offensive and predatory in the items they offer customers. Convenience stores sell what customers want. If those items didn't sell or customers had a preference for something else then they'd change. > And the workers are often underpaid. No such thing. So long as someone is willing to work for a certain wage they're getting paid exactly what they should be.

atonse 7y ago
Found our Robber Baron mentality right here. Nobody is "willing" to work at an un-livable wage. Forced is probably a better term. Not forced by their employer, but by circumstance.
- strathmeyer 7y ago
  Gee if the wage is un-livable how are they surviving?
  - mschuster91 7y ago
    Working two or more jobs and/or being subsidized by government assistance (food stamps, or in Germany Hartz IV).

Nasrudith 7y ago

Your assumption that they should try to promote things paternalistically is the really weird assumption from my perspective. Positive reinforcement sounds like the sort of thing which would creep out customers and employees like a company policy that all transactions are closed by hugs. In whole those requests aren't a cohesive strategy, or even a collection of separate ones "competing" for balance but a wish list. Paying higher wages to ensure quality of workers for lessened expenses or better effective throughput is a strategy. Just paying higher wages isn't a strategy, it is an out of context goal for a business model. At best it would be an alternate profit distribution which would make it and be peripheral to what makes an enterprise work. Starting with the end in mind is a good concept but a viable path to get there is needed or else it will end in failure and tears. On another note fair prices aren't a real thing economically. Despite efforts from medieval times to failed Communist attempts at solving a valuation problem. Fair is a judgement which may be anywhere from well informed to utterly insane.