Need help with human psychology

[djevox]

I don’t know if it’s just because people are really getting on my nerves today l, but I do not understand what goes through peoples’ minds. What kind of sense does it make to sit and idle for a half hour or more (in this case) to save $.36 a gallon on gas?

For some quick math, there were 31 cars in the line closest to me, and then the line zippered down the street for another 11 cars in one direction and 8 cars in the other. If I go by just the line of cars before zippering at 5 minutes per car to fill up and fumble with the credit card like every Costco member seems to do, I end up with the 32nd car idling for 155 minutes. If I’m generous and give them 3 minutes per car to fill up, that still equals 93 minutes of waiting.

I thought it was common knowledge that a vehicle is most inefficient when it idles, so what am I missing here?

 

[Brutal_HO]

People. Are. Dumb.

 

[Idahoktm]

I thought the same thing as I drove by Costco yesterday, after getting gas at Mobil. Costco gas was .10 per gallon cheaper and the line was ~10 cars deep on all pumps. I figured the guy in the back of the line was waiting 45-50 minutes to fill up. I won't fill up if I have to wait behind 1 car, let alone 10. It's hard to believe people are that stupid, but we witnessed a lot of it throughout the pandumbic.

 

[SpeedyV]

If only common sense were…common.

 

[ZombieSlayer]

3 in line is my max and at that I turn off the truck instead of idling.

 

[LaxDfns15]

I go to Costco because it's typically $1.00 or more cheaper, and I will turn the truck off if I'm not next in line. Granted, I'm not waiting if there are more than a few cars in line. Spending 2 hours to go get gas is beyond dumb.

 

[SD Rebel]

Yup, sometimes the math don't make sense, or the irritation.

However, the Costco lines in my area move pretty fast, I think the longest I've been in line, including when it stretches out in the street, was about 15 minutes, but I'm mostly in and out in 10 minutes. My local Costco has 8 lanes with 4 pumps each, that's 32 pumps. I just avoid going there at lunch time.

Our fuel savings here at least is about $1 per gallon vs main stations. Though ARCO is about 20 cents, not including card/debit fee on top of that. But those lines aren't exactly small either.

 

[djevox]

Yup, sometimes the math don't make sense, or the irritation.

However, the Costco lines in my area move pretty fast, I think the longest I've been in line, including when it stretches out in the street, was about 15 minutes, but I'm mostly in and out in 10 minutes. My local Costco has 8 lanes with 4 pumps each, that's 32 pumps. I just avoid going there at lunch time.

Our fuel savings here at least is about $1 per gallon vs main stations. Though ARCO is about 20 cents, not including card/debit fee on top of that. But those lines aren't exactly small either.

That’s a good point about the pumps. I was off with my math, but it’s still ridiculous what was going on at this costco. It’s one of the original ones where I live (very old), and is tight on space. They are supposed to have 2 rows of 3 pumps working, but had the inner on one side and outer on the other blocked off. So there were three cars per lane at any given time refueling. That in itself should reduce that time I mentioned by 1/3. However, if I cut my best case by 2/3, that’s still 31mins of waiting when I can see a Sunoco and 2 Shell stations from Costco’s parking lot.

There were old cars in line that don’t have DRL’s, but a majority had them on, so I am assuming they were idling. It was the hottest day of the year for MD (so far), and what felt like 1000% humidity the day I took the pic.

I think the thing that I just can’t wrap my head around is how people don’t value their time enough to not wait a half hour for ~$8 per tank in savings (based on $0.36 savings compared to the 3 other gas stations in the same block).

Ignoring my personal rate and “show up fee”, I always evaluate my hourly rate at my day job, break it down in comparison to the savings, and see if I’m profiting from whatever time I invest for the savings. If it’s not worth it, I don’t do it. Really, that’s no a great methodology either since I can never get back time. Think about that- no one can ever get that time back in their life that they spent sweating it out for 30mins to save $8.