I stopped off for gas on the way back from the not-very-famous Marengo Caves in Indiana. Out here on ol’ Route 64, the technology is not particularly modern. It’s the first gas station I’ve seen in years that I couldn’t swipe my credit card. I had to prepay.
I am clearly soft, because I was overly annoyed by this. You mean I have to wait in line? And I can’t just say “fill ‘er up”, I have to guess? Fine, let’s go with $20.
The pump didn’t stop at $20, it kept going to $25. So I had to go back in to pay the difference. I had to wait in line again. (The woman in front of me was buying groceries and cigarettes. At gas station prices. Over $100 for a few days worth of food). The cashier couldn’t understand why the pump had kept going, and told me all the details of the troubles they were having with the pump. Finally I nodded politley, dropped my fiver on the desk and walked out.
So how did they get me? They had arranged the choices in reverse order. I automatically punched the button on the left, which is always the 87 octane. Here it was not. They tricked me into buying premium gas.
Well done, Shell station of Route 64 in Indiana, conveniently located a few miles south of Marengo Caves. Now, with twice the flies!