Automatic Age

120
T h e A u t o m a t ic A ge
A 1 ip For Station Owners
Here’s a plea from a casual reader of
National Petroleum News and a tip for
the operators o f service stations along
tourist routes.
The letter was inspired by an article in
the June 18 National Petroleum News,
telling of the great effort of distributors
to place a multitude of pumps along
tourist routes but of the little effort made
to get automobiles into their stations. With
it was published a picture showing how
one station owner told the public boldly
that his place had a rest room for women.
The letter bears the signature of one
A . W . Miller whom, we regret, we cannot
identify. W e will let Mr. Miller give you
the tip in his deft style:
“Just been reading your article on
‘Rivalry in Putting Out Pumps’ which says
there are too many pumps and not enough
selling appeal.
“ You don’t know the half of it.
Did
you ever drive with a flock of kids? On
my regular run from New York to Boston,
where the folks live, I have finally marked
out a sufficient number of comfort stations
one to another without any panics, tears,
etc., in the rear set. But it was a job,
brother, and only the other day I got
caught flat in Providence, not a station in
reach (you never find ’em in cities) and
only for stumbling on the Y . M. C. A . at
the r'ght moment, calamity would have
befell.
“ You gasoline men ought to realize that
r'ding with three kids means reaching
three comfort stations per two hours, or
else. And when you have to stop any­
way, what better chance to sell gas and
whatnot?
“ And yet, on the main stem to Boston—
Federal Road No. 1, possibly the heaviest
traveled stretch of its size in the country
— I had my work cut out to find tba com­
bination of a clean comfort station and
my favorite brand of gas every hour. And
mine is one of the most popular brands-.
“ My idea for profits (and mutal ease
for driver-parents) is a sign 4 feet high,
visible five miles in each direction, saying:
10-cent pay toilets and they work over­
time.
People figure that they must be
better (i. e., cleaner) because they cost
money. W hy shouldn’t a low-margin busi­
ness like a filling station cut out this free
service, burn the old wooden house and
put in some equipment which has a chance
to make money. And then let the cus­
tomers know it’s there. And then make it
worth a dime by keeping it clean and in
working order.
“ Maybe this .comes under the head of
‘ What a Father Should Know’ and shouldn't
be mentioned in a polite magazine. Maybe
the customers would blush, get embarrassed
and buy their gasoline somewhere else.
May be. But I think people got over being
embarrassed at the word toilet about the
time the automobile got so it would run
both ways— there, and back.
“ I ’m not a gasoline man or an equipment
man or anything else connected with the
oil industry except an ultimate consumer—
with three kids.
“ Please, Mr. Editor, get ’em started."
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“ Every railroad terminal station that I
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