2013-09-04

How to ruin Labor Day

Link To Article

Orig Post Date:  2013.08-4. 
Source:  Al.com
My Comments:
Sort of reminds me of what happened at gas stations.
When I was a teenager I worked one summer at a gas station for at the rate of $10/day for an 8 hour shift.  When the customer's car pulled up to the service island one guy pumped the gas, another one checked under the hood and if asked the tire pressure, and another one cleaned the windows and if asked would vacuum the floorboards.  The station had 6 islands and each crew of 3 covered 3 islands.  We had one guy in the back just doing oil changes, another fixing flats and changing tires, and another washing cars. The station also had 2 full time mechanics in addition to the station owner who was the head mechanic.  This was at the busiest station in a major southern city and the owner was making a good living while providing all these summer jobs.
Then along came several minimum wage hikes and look at the typical station in the same area today.  The customer pumps their own gas, wipes their own windows if the station has a squeegee out there (about half of them), checks their own oil, and if they want their floorboards vacuumed there may be a coin operated vacuum for the customer to use.  And many pumps take credit cards thus making any interaction with station staff (these days 1 cashier whose job is in jeopardy) unnecessary.
W.C.  

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