Convenience Store Tales: Utter Shock

Breaking news, my blogfriends! The Casey's where I buy gas for T-Hoe is CLOSING! How can that be? Should I have been buying my 44 oz Diet Cokes from there all along, too? Have I put them out of business by driving one town over for my magical elixir? Nah. I don't think so. Casey's doesn't have Coca Cola products any more, anyway. I wouldn't switch to Diet Pepsi, even to save a convenience store.

There I was last Friday, happy as a clam, having found my behind-the-store penny after moving away from the parking spot in front of the dumpster, waiting in line to trade in some scratchers...when the lady behind me commented on some sign sitting on the counter.

"Oh, is that the 28th? What's So-and-So going to do?" I guess she was a regular.

"I don't know. Right now, she's going crazy," said the short mannish woman clerk who is so nice.

They continued talking, and I gathered that THE STORE IS CLOSING. A lady not wearing a Casey's smock, who must be high up in command, was standing with her back to the front window. "We just can't compete with Waterside Mart. We don't have room to expand."

A policeman by the front door (not a guard, just standing out of the way, opening and closing it for people while he waited) said, "I thought it would hurt the Convenience Barn more. But they're doing fine."

Indeed. Casey's is on a V slice of property, roads on two sides, and a car wash behind, and cannot expand in any direction. I guess they're going the way of the Dodo Bird.

Anyhoo...I was in line to pay at The Gas Station Shicken Store the next day. The Lady Owner was clerking, since I'd passed the stern older lady clerk going outside to her car carrying lunch. As Lady Owner made some notes on a receipt, I waited patiently, and decided to make small talk.

"I just found out yesterday that Casey's in Next Town is closing. I was shocked."

Lady Owner looked up at me. Eye contact. She, too, looked SHOCKED!

"If that's true, I'll...I'll...I'll KISS YOU!"

Well! That's a bit presumptuous, don't you think? A bit forward of her. We're not even on a first name basis. I imagine she calls me Correct Change Lady. I know her initials. That's what everybody calls her, and what they call her store. Hick went to school with her brothers.  According to Hick, who had NOTHING growing up, not even indoor plumbing..."They didn't have much."

Lady Owner went on to say, "That little store controls the gas prices in the whole county! And them having only TWO PUMPS! Them and Whatstheirname Oil."

"Oh, I remember! All the way back when I was in high school. The gas wars! With them and the lot across the street. That's been closed a long time now. But I'm surprised, because Casey's is always busy when I go by."

"When you sell gas at $2.09 a gallon, and it's costing you $2.19 a gallon...you have to do a LOT of other business to make up for that."

"I could be mistaken, but I'm pretty sure that's what they were talking about. Closing. You could go in there, and spy on them, and read whatever that sign was on the counter..."

"No! I have never set foot in another convenience store in this county, and I never will! It's just not done."

So much for spying.

Anyhoo...Lady Owner was thrilled with this news. I could almost see dollar signs in her eyes. I think if she found pennies from heaven, she would pinch them until all their luck was squeezed out, and they were mere dried husks that would waft away on the wind, impossible for me to find.

She's a businesswoman all right. More on that tomorrow.