Costco Gas for Dummies
Wow, everyone wants to get gas at Costco these days, since it’s so much cheaper (today it was “only” $3.99 for 87 octane.) I tried to go to the Sunnyvale one as I needed to make a stop on the way home over there, and the line to get into the parking lot was going to take 10 minutes, let alone actually waiting for gas. So off to the one near my house, I went (Airport Blvd in South San Francisco).
It was pretty packed there, too… definitely the most folks I’ve seen there before. They closed one of the entrances so they’d have more room for lines, and I was directed by one of the attendants, to the second to last line. Fine, I pull in, OK, only one car ahead of me, then a guy with a trailer and a boat, and a couple guys at the pumps. The two guys pull out, and Mr. Boat pulls in. Hmm, won’t pull up to the front pump, huh? Great. So this is going to take longer. Mr. Boat and his buddy, we’ll call him Mr. Dinghy, jump out and try to figure out the pump. This takes a few minutes, and finally they start getting gas for the truck. Time passes. Folks in other lines are moving ahead. Finally they stop filling up the truck, and — you guessed it — start filling up the boat. This is when I get out of my car and ask them why they didn’t pull forward to the first pump. “There isn’t enough room” they say. Looks like there is, to me. There’s at least 25 feet in front of the pumps for cars to maneuver around, even if they stuck out 10 feet, it’d be fine. Grr.
OK, so, it’s a small boat. How much gas can it hold? How long can this take? Nearly 15 additional minutes, is the answer. I’m thinking this boat must hold a TON of fuel! I’m getting really impatient now, and I’m thoroughly bored both by NPR on the radio and by Valleywag on my iPhone. Hurry up already!! As I reach to honk in arggravation, they start capping up the tank on the boat. Sigh. So now the guy in front of me, and I, pull up to the pumps. The Boaties left their receipt. This ought to be good, I think, they must have spent $300 on gas. Hmm, only 24 gallons. What? Really? How can you only pump 24 gallons in 15 minutes? Lordy.
I swiped my card, pumped my less-than-7-gallons (the Prius has an itty bitty tank), and was back in the car within 3 minutes. That’s 20 fewer minutes I had with my kids tonight, thanks to the Inconsiderate BoatJerks.