Gas Station Owner Accidentally Sells Gas For $0.35, But Is Glad To Have Made People Happy
Mimi Zidan owns the Lucky Mart in Pekin, IL, where a pricing mistake resulted in a mob of gas thirsty customers, rushing to take advantage of pumps that were dispensing gas for only $0.35 per gallon. You'd think she'd be upset about losing so much money, but she's not.
"We lost about 1,000 gallons of gas and about $3,500," Mimi Zidan, owner of the Lucky Mart on Derby Street, said Wednesday. "But I don't feel too bad because the people looked so happy when they were buying gas. If I can do this for them, that's all right."
The attendant on duty accidentally adjusted the pumps to sell gas for 35 cents instead of $3.50, and during the two hours before they were corrected people called their friends to tell them about the mistake.
The result was that the situation at Derby and South Fifth streets was totally chaotic, with traffic backed up in all directions when Zidan returned to the store.
"I thought it was an accident," Zidan said. "For the first 10 minutes I didn't know what to do. I didn't want to say you must stop, the price is wrong."
But once the police came in and restored some order, she felt better.
Her sister, Amy Habal, who helps run the store, said it would have been nice if someone had told them about the mistake instead of calling their friends.
"But my sister is very kind, she does not think bad about people," Habal said.
Lucky customers pump 35-cent gas [Peoria J-S] (Thanks, Eyebrows McGee!)
(Photo: spinadelic )
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Comments:
Wow. I live 5 minutes away from Pekin. Too bad no one called me.
Sounds like Mimi is one in a million. If it were me I would still be cursing the day away.
Aww, they're taking it so well. Imagine if something like this happened at Comcast.
The people who took advantage of an obvious error ought to be ashamed.
I live about 2 miles from Pekin. I didn't know there were any foreigners anywhere in that town.
/whitebreadcity
I'm glad she's taking it in stride and with a smile. But I would like to think better of people than what obviously happened -- I agree with the sister.
She was taken advantage of, this is what happens when people lose a sense of decency.
I agree that the someone should've told the attendant about the obvious pricing error. Some people look at it as sticking it to the man, when in reality, all they're hurting is a small business owner.
In some states they might be in trouble, though... and I'm talking about the gas station owners.
Some states of minimum gas price laws and they are preventing other stations from being competitive by selling the gas so cheap.
Ridiculous.
Unleaded = $3.24 at a Gulf in RI this morning. Damn; I just filled up two days ago at $3.55!
@thaJack: You don't think they'd get a pass on that since it was an honest mistake by an attendant? (assuming, of course, that it was an honest mistake?
I'm not so quick to cast aspersions on the people who took advantage of the situation. Gas stations do gimmicky stuff like this all the time, usually in conjunction with a radio station or something; who's to say that it couldn't have been perceived as just another promotional stunt?
In that same light, you gotta wonder how much incidental repeat business this error might generate for the gas station.
All in all though it's awesome that the owner has such a great attitude about it.
I think they should get a pass.. I don't, in fact, think one should be required. I think if you want to sell gasoline today for a dime a gallon, you should be allowed to. That's what free enterprise is all about, right?
I'm always reading about people running away with obvious gross pricing errors. Gas station gimmicks are $.10 off, not $3 off. And we do know gas station owners aren't the ones taking profits on the high prices. It's the oil companies.
Where did people's sense of decency go? They get the freebie, but TELL the gas station attendants!
@BeeBoo: Are you saying you wouldn't? Error or not, I wouldn't let an opportunity like this pass me by.
Integrity is doing the right thing even when nobody is looking. What does this say about us as a people? Frankly, I'm ashamed that people can be so dishonest and instead of doing the right thing call their friends to further prolong the dishonesty. Furthermore...(brb) just got a call that this is happening somewhere close by.......
I'm surprised the clerk didn't notice. Even with self serve, there should be a readout inside of what the pumps are doing. And yeah, get your tank, then tell the attendant.
Who expected that people would take advantage of a situation like this? Probably all of you. And I bet that if you were in the same situation, you probably wouldn't report it either. If you did report it, it wouldn't be until after you filled up your tank. Not saying it's right, per se, but that it's human nature.
I'm glad to see the owner is taking a $3500 hit in stride though.
I'd still take it for $3.50. It's about $0.50 less than some around here.
See, I would think differently - tell the attendant about it, and maybe they'll be so happy that I reported it, that they give me a free tank of gas. I just saved even more! ;-)
When did it become a consumers responsibility to baby sit a business? It may have been an obvious error to some, but a reasonable person could indeed conclude that it was a gimmicky promotion. The attendant should have noticed something was up, and the one who made the error should be out of a job. Stupid mistakes like this happen when people get lazy and complacent and stop paying attention to what they are doing. The consumers have no obligation, ethical or otherwise, to tell the attendant that they think the gas is too cheap. Now I would have a different opinion if they were not being charged at all or were exploiting an obvious flaw with the pump to get gas at less than the posted price. But that isn't what happened here. An attendant who works for the station screwed up and the price on the pump was $.35. The consumers got exactly what was advertised with no trickery or unethical behavior. This is also completely distinguishable from situations where a product is on the wrong shelf in a store. In that case, the consumer has reason to know that the price on the shelf is not the price for the item, usually because the shelf tag says what the item is for or it's obviously out of place. Here, the driver pulls up. On the pump, it says "Unleaded: $.35/gal". They fill up and leave. There is no deception or attempted deception. Yeah, it would be nice for the owner if someone had questioned it, but you can't look down upon those who didn't.
@SuperiorInky: Agreed. The gas station across from work was selling premium for $2.68/gal one day as opposed to $3.68 which was what was on the sign. I filled up and then we over to work and e-mailed the entire office!
I would consider this a variation on "a f*ck up on your part does not constitute an emergency on mine".
She was smiling as she signed the attendant's pink slip too. It's nice to see her take it in stride. After seeing so many examples of corporate greed, I am not sure if consumer greed is much better.
Little things that redeem ones faith in humanity :)
It amazes me what people will do for cheap gas. My car only holds ten gallons and that gets me by for at least a week, usually two or so. There is no way I'm going to stop what I'm doing, whatever it is, and rush out and wait in line so I can save a few bucks.
Frankly, I truly appreciate this wonderful lady's attitude. That is a one in a million response.
@UnStatusTheQuo: I was about to say the same thing. I'd be very happy if one of the gas stations around me "accidentally" starting selling gas for $3.50/gal, fer pete's sake!
@CountryJustice: Yeah, but if the sign says $3.509 and the pump says $0.3509, even Verizon could figure THAT one out.
I'm pretty shocked at the number of people that are defending the people who bought the gas, didn't tell the attendant, and called their friends. This is a straight-up mistake, pure and simple, and you shouldn't take advantage of it any more than if the owner had dropped their wallet on the ground.
You would think it would send up a red flag when everyone was only paying 5 to 10 dollars per customer instead of the usual 50 to 100.
@algal924:
Also....did they continue to sell gas after they realized the mistake? I was unclear about that from the story. I think I would have shut the place down.
As far as the government is concerned, where tax revenues are involved there are no honest mistakes. It's pay up or else. She'll have to pay the full tax on all underpriced gas.
@katbur2: Really? A bunch of people acting like vultures and taking advantage of an error, and the poor woman that has to deal with it acts like a pushover and is too fearful of people's reactions to do anything until the police get there? That does it for you?
@SuperiorInky: I would, but then would immediately let the gas station owner know about the error after paying, rather than calling a flood of people to take advantage of the obvious error. And after having paid, if they wanted to charge me the difference, I'd happily pay because I'm not a thief that takes advantage of obvious mistakes. They'd probably not ask me to pay the difference, though.
@CountryJustice: Yes, but radios will promote those type of event, and will have their vehiles on the spot.
Don't forget that those types of promos are partially assumed by advertisers. So gas station does not lose money.
In this case, people took advantage.
@startertan: Which shows you as a such honest person, I might cry.
If at least you'd have decency, to tell the rep about the mistake, after you profited from fueling up...
probably the best $3500 she ever invested on her business. i bet folks were buyin crap inside, and will come back just to see if another mistake is made. it'll come back to her ten times over in the long run
@cmdrsass: Most states assess their fuel tax on a per-gallon basis, not a percentage of the sales price. Illinois charges both, so they're definitely on the hook for the per-gallon excise tax, but I don't see any way the state could justify collecting sales tax on a price different from that at which the 1000 gallons were actually sold.
@Pylon83: Oh yes I can look down on those jerks. Gas station are not very profitable small business, especially when they are not part of a major chain.
In a big store, a pricing error is just a mistake, that does not affect general margin.
In this case, such mistake may cause a lot of pain for the small business owner. An may cause a chain reaction with creditors/payments.
The basic decent thing to do would be at least telling the rep about the mistake after fueling up.
And I wouldn't like live in a city that people lack human decency THAT much.
@Pylon83: It's hit well...it could go...yes, there it is folks, social decency has been hit out of the park.
@Pylon83: It's not really about a responsibility to babysit but a responsibility to be nice to other human beings. If a cashier gives me too much change and I notice I'll give it back. Why? Because I know it'll be a pain in the ass when they try to close out and their count is off. In some places that difference comes out of their pocket. I don't really need that extra 5 10 or even 20 dollars--and I'm pretty broke.
All of these people were taking advantage of this woman who is now out thousands of dollars and it's wrong.
If the attendant did not get fired or made responsible, he/she is very lucky indeed. I used to work at a full serve gas station where attendants were allowed to make pumping errors up to $0.05 per 100 liters (about 26 gallons). Anything more would come off your paycheque. And keep in mind this was during the days of manual gauge pumps where you couldn't just select $10 or $20 worth of gas. If the customer asked for $10 worth of gas and you accidently pumped $10.50 because it got very busy and you couldn't get back to him in time, they got $0.50 worth of gas at the attendant's expense. I can imagine if this situation were to happen at the place I used to work at, the attendant would be fired on the spot and be forced to pay back the station owner to boot.
Don't make fun of immigrant Gas Station owners. They're good people as this article demonstrates.