I see no reason for us to legally ban self-service. Give businesses and consumers that freedom. It's not like cars and stations are exploding across the country. Maybe it made more sense years ago, but stations are generally safe. It's an archaic and unnecessary law. But my position has nothing to do with costs.

The savings you predict only makes sense if the stations are trying to set the lowest possible price. Businesses aim to set the highest price while still maintaining demand. So I can't see these savings happening in any meaningful way.

What you said may happen, but it would only be a short-term fluctuation. The stations would adjust accordingly and then prices would creep back up because they would ultimately adjust according to demand (which ain't going nowhere anytime soon).

So if we do this, okay, station A lowers its prices because it has a sudden surplus. Station B loses some customers (it doesn't lose all of its customers because some people are loyal to brands or maybe they enjoy the shorter line for a few cents more). Maybe Station B gets some of Station's A's customers who want the service. Maybe Station B eventually gives in and lowers prices to be more competitive and everything is close to uniform again. (But none of these details really matter in the grand scheme because both stations know their customers will pay more if they push prices up, so they both gradually creep back to where they would have been all along.)

Demand is the ultimate factor here and all the stations will tinker with their prices to extract the maximum price out of you. So maybe you'll save a bit in the short term, but they'll get you right where they want you while providing fewer local jobs and offering you less service.

In not so many words, I agree with you, but I don't agree for the same reasons