Kelly: Whatever happened to business between friends?

I visited a gas station picked by random in an unfamiliar town last week, and went back in today because of the service they offered. With all the cross country and local traveling we do, this place was truly special in the last many, many years!

The first time we first pulled in, since I was driving, I stepped out to fill the huge tank on our van. We were almost empty and we had many miles between towns. With credit card in hand, I looked at the pumps and couldn’t find any place to slide the card to begin the fill. So, exasperated, thinking I had to tell the clerk that I would need to pump a large dollar figure for sure, and was it necessary for them to hold my card while I pumped, I hurried into the convenience store.

“I am trying to fill my tank and I don’t where to insert my credit card for payment at the pumps,” I whined.

The clerk looked at me piteously and replied, “Well, you have to fill the tank first. Just lift the lever on the pump, then come in here and I’ll take your card for however much gasoline you want to buy.”

I must admit, I looked at the woman and my mouth dropped open.

“You mean, I don’t have to pay first?”

“No, just get what you need and we’ll settle up when you are finished,” she said with a courteous smile.

How long has it been since you had the same experience? How long since you didn’t have to pay first, or swipe a credit card and watch the pump shut off at a pre-determined cap (which dollar amount is never noticed to the customer first) and which is often too soon with our big fuel tank? When was the last time you felt dignified, like a trusted customer, when you bought gasoline? What happened to that way of doing business between “friends?”

The “bad guys” happened, that’s what. Crooks and cheats and thieves forced businesses to take away our dignity and our right to demonstrate that we could be honest, honorable customers. Drive-aways, as they are called, casually and callously stole fuel from our places of business. So now, we all must pay the price for the dishonesty and lack of respect practiced by those thieves.

Is that the kind of society we really want?

Dishonesty, greed, self-interest crimes and behaviors surface in all walks of life these days. Examples can be found in politics, religion, retail, manufacturing, medicine, education, finance, environment, judicial and certainly at all levels of government leadership. What makes someone steal from a business, or another person, or even from society itself?

It has been said that we get the government we deserve.

Is it also true that we get the society we deserve?

Mel Kelly is a frequent contributor to the Apalachicola & Carrabelle Times.