Self Serve Gasoline Stations

[OnMyWay]

In the U.S. it is almost impossible to find a full serve gasoline station.  The opposite seems to be true here in the Philippines, where almost all stations are full serve for pumping gas.

 

Here in Subic Bay Freeport we have one self serve station, and you save about 2 pesos per litre by getting gas there.  I was wondering if anyone else has seen self serve stations popping up in other areas?

 

My accountant want us to fill up there all the time.  I got 33 litres today so I saved about 66 pesos, good for one Halo Halo fix at Chow King!  :hystery:

 

BTW, standard price here for unleaded right now is about 51.80 and it was 49.80 at the self serve.  I am told that the gas in the Freeport is cheaper than other places.

 

[JJReyes]

Self Serve gasoline stations are terrible for the Philippines. Is this some Western economic theory that consumers will flock to gasoline stations offering a slightly cheaper price? If you can afford to drive a car and purchase gasoline, you can afford the extra P2 a liter that will help employ someone who needs the job.

 

Sure. You can save enough for a Halo Halo fix, but my advice is to stay in the car and pay the extra money for someone else to fill up the tank. Better still, organize a protest against the Self Serve gasoline station for being anti-Filipino.

Edited August 3, 2013 by JJReyes

[samatm]

Full service stations are just one of the "perks"  for living here .     Especially when its below freezing and sleeting outside...that gas pump sure is miserable to deal with. 

[OnMyWay]

Self Serve gasoline stations are terrible for the Philippines. Is this some Western economic theory that consumers will flock to gasoline stations offering a slightly cheaper price? If you can afford to drive a car and purchase gasoline, you can afford the extra P2 a liter that will help employ someone who needs the job.

 

Sure. You can save enough for a Halo Halo fix, but my advice is to stay in the car and pay the extra money for someone else to fill up the tank. Better still, organize a protest against the Self Serve gasoline station for being anti-Filipino.

 

JJR, I understand what you are saying.  I did think about that angle and the effect on employment.  My Halo Halo comment was meant to be facetious.  And I was being honest when I said my Filipina accountant makes me go there!  I’m not a big fan of self-serve because of the way it evolved in the US, and the Philippines may follow the same path.

 

The bottom line for self-serve success in the Philippines is that the customer is king.  I’m sure that 99.5+% of the self-serve customers at this station are Filipinos, and they are enjoying the discount.  A lot of the cars, trucks and jeeps I see there are not wealthy owner’s vehicles, and a lot of people are driving over from Olongapo City to get the discount.  Many people who own vehicles are far from wealthy.

 

Organize a protest?  I don’t think that you or I are in the position to tell the local Filipinos what to buy or where to shop.  The 2 pesos saved is a lot of money for some Filipinos, and as you know it is a bit of a “dog eat dog” world here.  I doubt that most Filipinos are not going to care about the workers at the station if they can save some money.

 

Only time will tell.  The reason I posted is because I was wondering if anyone seen another self-serve or is this unique to the Freeport?  I don’t think the business model works in some high traffic area where you have high volumes of jeeps and trikes pulling in for small quantities.

 

So would we want the Philippine government to introduce more regulations to prevent self-serve and help create / maintain jobs?  IMHO I think that would not be in the long run best interest of all of the people.  I believe the people are best served by a free market system with as little government intervention as possible.

[JJReyes]

OnMyWay, I was only kidding about organizing a protest. The gasoline station owners can do whatever they want including offering Self Serve at a discount price. Actually, it is the petroleum companies that dictate policy. 

 

The point I was trying to make is economic efficiency has to take into consideration the social cost. Garment factories were moved from the United States to Philippines, to China, to Vietnam, to Bangladesh and now to Myanmar. Each move was to a cheaper and less regulated labor market. Each industry relocation also creates unemployment and social upheaval. Many families are forced to uproot and seek employment elsewhere. The difficulty in the Philippines is the lack of a social net like unemployment insurance. Once terminated, a gasoline station attendant will encounter a hard time finding another job because it is unskilled work.

[OnMyWay]

Another thing I meant to mention was that here in Subic Freeport I think they have too many gas stations!  At the major intersection near the SCTEX ramp, they have 3 big ones, Petron, PTT and Eastern.  Total just opened a new one down the street, Filoil just opened a new one, and PETRON is opening another right down the road from the current one.  It seems like they have overbuilt for the demand.

 

Most of the time, the attendants are just standing around at these stations.  I counted 10 attendants at the Petron as we passed by yesterday.  Many times there are no cars getting gas.  There are other businesses at these locations and there is a lot of traffic.

 

The self serve station, on the other hand, is usually always busy with vehicles.