Michael Due to the Libya crisis, fuel prices recently skyrocketed here. The premium gasoline that our rocket eagerly guzzles now costs almost four dollars per gallon ($0.77 per liter)! However, this affects us only peripherally at most, as we hardly drive and spend maybe $50 per month on gasoline. But SUV-driving suburbanites are desperately tearing their hair out.
The gas station at the mega-supermarket Costco in South San Francisco is cheap, and on Saturday afternoon I almost laughed myself silly when I saw that up to ten cars were waiting in line at the pumps. You have to know that the average American takes about ten minutes to refuel their car. First, they don't realize it's their turn, then they leisurely drive up to the pump, maybe finish a phone call, get out casually, and then remember they need to search for their credit card in their wallet. To cut it short: if there's even a single car with a suburban fool in front of you at the pump, you'll have a heart attack.
How long did the last person in line in picture 1 have to wait with the engine running before it was their turn? I didn't find out, but instead went to the Shell gas station around the corner, paid an exorbitant $3.97 per gallon instead of $3.88, and was served immediately.