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The typical letter you see in the paper is along the lines "When
I was driving on my trip to FL, NJ was the lowest gas price I saw, so
it proves self service isn't a factor with gas prices." Of course,
what these dummies don't understand is that NJ gas is among the lowest
because the NJ state tax on gasoline is one of the lowest in the
country and we are close to a number of refineries.

While what you say about taxes is true, other states, like Massachusetts
have a mix of self and full service as each town fire marshal makes the law
for pumping. The full service stations sell at the same price as the self
serve stations across the street or around the block. I'll be damned if I'm
going to stand out in the cold when I can pay the same price and have it
pumped for me. The only difference it is consistently about 30¢ higher
than NJ.

I live in CT. Some of the stations offer both, but they artificially raise
the full serve about 35¢ to 50¢ over the self serve. They really don't want
to pump it but if you make them, they will be well paid for the service. In
any case, they are about 6¢ over MA due to our very high gas taxes. I think
we are second highest in the country.