To the editor:

Having just completed a wonderful book on the history of gas stations in the United States (“Pump and circumstance,” by John Margolies), I find irony in the situation now occurring with local convenience store owners who are concerned about larger grocery stores installing gas pumps on their parking lots.

Not that long ago, “gas station” meant uniformed men (and sometimes women) coming to meet their customer from an often uniquely designed building containing service bays and office space and offering “complete customer service” in the old-fashioned sense of that term.

Now, we pump our own gas, wash our own windows, check our own oil and air our own tires (if the 25-cent/minute air machine is even working).

The “convenience store” is essentially an expensive miniature grocery, with pumps outside; the “service” end of this wonderful industry was wiped out by the American quest for low prices and big profits on the other end.

What, may I ask, is the difference between the “convenience” stores’ approach to the small, independent gas station owner of 30 years ago and the grocery chains’ attitude toward the Kwik Shop and 7-Eleven stores (chains themselves) of today? I don’t see much difference, and frankly, isn’t this what capitalism is all about?

Hope to see you at my neighborhood gas station (at 19th and Massachusetts streets) very soon! Where service is still an important commodity.

Marilyn Roy,

Lawrence