I worked at a couple Deep Rock service stations, and we washed the windshield and head lights, checked the oil, and water, vacuumed out the interior. We also checked transmission, as well as tire pressure and aired them up on request.
Back then even during gas wars the prices were close, so superior service was our promotional point.
PS: I've seen gas prices in the teens per gallon during gas wars.
I remember seeing 22 cents/gallon during the gas wars. Never saw it any lower than that, and I never pumped it for that.
Me and the other guys would race out to see who could get the cars out fastest if there were more than one at the pumps.
We also washed windshields and checked tires and fluids. I "washed" many a kid's nose that was stuck to the inside of the windshield as I cleaned the outside.
Saw some pretty fine real estate in the front seat while washing those windshields, too.
(I often thought it was intentional, and still do.)
Fast forward, and we had self-serve
and full-serve...some certain kinds of hateful folks decided it'd be fun to make the attendant (guys like me) check *everything over for a couple bucks worth of full service gas. Literally, $1.50 - $2.00 worth of gas, when gas was 65-70 cents per gallon.
It wasn't little old ladies doing it...it was folks with an agenda, and it got so bad most stations started requiring minimum purchases at the full-serve islands.
New Jersey still has full-service-only gas pumps, as far as I know, and they'll fine the station if they see someone pumping their own gas at one.
