Latest / The World of Phil Hendrie / Episode #3984 The New Phil Hendrie Show Radio Archive May 2001

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Episode #3984 The New Phil Hendrie Show Radio Archive May 2001 · The World of Phil Hendrie

0:00
Speaker 1: Welcome, everybody, to another Radio Archive Hour from the Radio
0:02
Speaker 1: Hall of Fame, Phil Hendry Show and philhendryshow.com. We have
0:05
Speaker 1: for you today Robert Green, not when he was a
0:08
Speaker 1: grocer and not when he was a restaurant owner. This
0:11
Speaker 1: is Robert Green when he was a gas station owner.
0:13
Speaker 1: And this is from May of 2001. This is before
0:16
Speaker 1: any of that stuff. He was trying to save people
0:19
Speaker 1: money on gasoline. The price of gas had gone up
0:21
Speaker 1: during that particular period of time. And he said it's
0:24
Speaker 1: because his overhead was high.
0:26
Speaker 2: He had to.
0:26
Speaker 1: Scrub people's urine off the floor of the bathroom. People
0:30
Speaker 1: were graffitiing stuff in the restroom. It was basically the
0:34
Speaker 1: foul habits of the customers that was causing him to
0:36
Speaker 1: have to jack the price of gasoline because he had
0:37
Speaker 1: to pay for, I don't know, mops and stuff. Yeah,
0:42
Speaker 1: mops and cleanser. Yeah, mops and cleanser. Also, all the blue,
0:46
Speaker 1: those blue, I don't know, blue towels that people use
0:50
Speaker 1: to wipe down their windshield. He said he ran out
0:51
Speaker 1: of those and he said people were ripping off his squeegees.
0:54
Speaker 1: To hear Bob tell it, the whole reason why the
0:56
Speaker 1: price of gas had gone up is because people are
0:57
Speaker 1: funky when they're using the restroom and they're pigs when
1:00
Speaker 1: they're trying to wash the windshield of their car.
1:03
Speaker 2: Here's Bob Green.
1:04
Speaker 1: Robert Green is a member of a coalition of Southern
1:07
Speaker 1: California service station operators, and we're talking to him on
1:11
Speaker 1: a cell phone from his place of business in Van Nuys.
1:13
Speaker 2: Mr. Green, how are you?
1:15
Speaker 3: I'm very good.
1:17
Speaker 2: Can you tell me why the price of gas is
1:18
Speaker 2: going up?
1:21
Speaker 3: Gas prices are up, and they'll probably continue to go up.
1:26
Speaker 2: But OPEC isn't raising the price of oil. What is this?
1:31
Speaker 3: Mr. Henry, the environmental requirements for spring and summer are
1:34
Speaker 3: kicking in, forcing much more complicated and expensive refining procedures.
1:39
Speaker 3: I'll tell you, these environmental deals, they hamstring the little
1:43
Speaker 3: guy like me. I can't keep up, and we feel
1:46
Speaker 3: that we're entitled to raise the price given the... these
1:51
Speaker 3: environmental refinement costs.
1:53
Speaker 1: Well, doesn't this sound a little bit like an oil
1:55
Speaker 1: company saying, geez, if you guys would loosen up the
1:58
Speaker 1: environmental standards, then maybe the price could come down?
2:01
Speaker 3: I don't know what the oil company is saying. All
2:03
Speaker 3: I know is that every time that we try to
2:05
Speaker 3: make a living from the service station standpoint, we are
2:09
Speaker 3: dealing with a... upset public.
2:11
Speaker 2: Well, I mean, you know, $ 2 a gallon. Look, just
2:14
Speaker 2: raise it up to wherever you want it to be
2:16
Speaker 2: and be done with it.
2:17
Speaker 1: These incremental raises since two summers ago, the whole thing
2:21
Speaker 1: seems to me has gone up about $ 1 a gallon.
2:24
Speaker 3: If I could interrupt you for a minute, Phil, if
2:26
Speaker 3: you look at what the average service station does for
2:29
Speaker 3: the motorist, most of what we do for the motorist
2:33
Speaker 3: we don't charge for. And, well, most.
2:36
Speaker 2: Okay, like what?
2:37
Speaker 3: Well, water and air are mostly free at most stations.
2:41
Speaker 3: It costs a quarter. What we'd like people to start doing,
2:45
Speaker 3: as opposed to complaining about the price of a gallon
2:47
Speaker 3: of gas, which starts to, it's like fingers on a chalkboard.
2:52
Speaker 3: I know you have a right to complain, but it's
2:55
Speaker 3: not going to do any good.
2:58
Speaker 1: My complaining about the price of a gallon of gas
3:00
Speaker 1: really doesn't have anything to do with anything more than
3:01
Speaker 1: I'd like to know why.
3:03
Speaker 2: That's all, okay?
3:04
Speaker 3: Well, there's a lot of things that you might not understand,
3:08
Speaker 3: but your listeners might not understand either. But I'll tell you,
3:12
Speaker 3: at most, the service station does a lot.
3:16
Speaker 2: Well, you mentioned the.
3:17
Speaker 1: Fact that you give us water and air, mostly for free.
3:19
Speaker 1: At some places, it costs a quarter.
3:22
Speaker 3: You know, we provide a squeegee to wipe off your windshield.
3:25
Speaker 3: That's free. So is the paper, a towel that you
3:27
Speaker 3: wipe the dipstick off with. When you're checking your oil,
3:30
Speaker 3: that's free. The The water that you use to wipe
3:33
Speaker 3: down your windshield, that's free. Now let's take a look
3:37
Speaker 3: at the use of our bathrooms. Bathrooms are free. You
3:40
Speaker 3: only need to ask for the key, all the towels,
3:43
Speaker 3: the soap.
3:44
Speaker 2: I'm going to ask you a question. You're saying that
3:45
Speaker 2: this makes up for the price of a gallon of gas?
3:48
Speaker 3: If you take it in total, yes, sir. The soap,
3:52
Speaker 3: this is what we're trying to say as service station operators.
3:55
Speaker 2: Well, you know, a lot of places I ask for
3:57
Speaker 2: the key to the restroom and use the restroom and.
4:02
Speaker 2: You know, it's dirty.
4:04
Speaker 3: The average service station restroom, according to a survey that
4:08
Speaker 3: we did, is cleaner than a bathroom in your home.
4:14
Speaker 2: Well, that would be hard.
4:15
Speaker 3: That is part of the survey that we did. But
4:19
Speaker 3: everything you get in our restroom is free, from the
4:21
Speaker 3: toilet paper, the water to wash your hands with, all
4:23
Speaker 3: the towels, the soap, the seat covers are free. Most
4:26
Speaker 3: gas stations today offer coffee for a low price. Soda pops, cigarettes, film,
4:31
Speaker 3: car care products. Most of us have a mechanic on call.
4:34
Speaker 3: We have road service. We have a telephone if you
4:37
Speaker 3: don't have a cell phone. More and more of us
4:39
Speaker 3: are contracting with fast food chains to have some food
4:42
Speaker 3: on site. We offer all of this, and when we
4:45
Speaker 3: want to raise the price of gas a few cents,
4:48
Speaker 3: you can hear the screaming for miles. Screaming and crying like.
4:52
Speaker 1: Okay, the fact that you're offering me three towels to
4:56
Speaker 1: wipe my hands off with The fact that you are.
4:59
Speaker 3: Mr. Henry, when we raise the price of gas at
5:01
Speaker 3: a gas station, we might as well have set fire
5:04
Speaker 3: to an orphanage. That's how.
5:06
Speaker 1: So in other words, you're saying you have the right
5:09
Speaker 1: to raise the price of a gallon of gas.
5:11
Speaker 2: Without telling us why.
5:12
Speaker 3: No, what I'm saying is, how about sending a little
5:14
Speaker 3: bit of love my way? Okay?
5:17
Speaker 2: Sending love your way? You give me free paper towels?
5:21
Speaker 3: We give you free paper towels. You give me no
5:22
Speaker 3: love when I raise the price of a few cents.
5:24
Speaker 3: I provide a restroom for you to come in and
5:27
Speaker 3: stink up and pee on the floor, and carve your
5:30
Speaker 3: phone number into the mirror, and I don't get any
5:34
Speaker 3: love when I got the EPA breathing down my neck.
5:39
Speaker 2: Well, hold on. 1-800-449-8686 is our number.
5:40
Speaker 1: We're going to take some phone calls from our listeners
5:44
Speaker 1: about the price of gas, which you say you guys
5:46
Speaker 1: raised the price of a gallon of gas, and it's
5:48
Speaker 1: justified because you're giving us paper towels and squeegees for free.
5:52
Speaker 3: You minimize that, but it is a real dollar value.
5:57
Speaker 3: And again, I can't emphasize enough, we provide restrooms for
6:00
Speaker 3: people who come in, they do their business all over
6:03
Speaker 3: the floor, they wipe their hands, they throw the towels
6:06
Speaker 3: on the floor. The average mechanic in a gas station
6:10
Speaker 3: keeps a bathroom at a service station cleaner than most housewives.
6:15
Speaker 1: That part, really, I don't believe. A service station bathroom,
6:19
Speaker 1: with all due respect to you, sir, is filthy.
6:23
Speaker 2: Compared to.
6:24
Speaker 3: No, you can't say that. Not mine. You could eat
6:26
Speaker 3: off the floor of the bathrooms in my place.
6:28
Speaker 2: Well, good for you. I mean, my hat's off to you.
6:30
Speaker 3: Most of.
6:31
Speaker 2: I don't know how you do it, because you're right.
6:33
Speaker 1: Your primary job is to provide mechanical service to automobiles
6:38
Speaker 1: and gasoline.
6:39
Speaker 2: But most of these bathrooms, you've got to be kidding.
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Speaker 3: I've got to tell you, Phil, we have heard that
6:46
Speaker 3: criticism for years, and yet our industry did a survey.
6:49
Speaker 3: We found out that gas station bathrooms are cleaner... 15
6:52
Speaker 3: gas station bathrooms with a prearranged inspection day were found
6:57
Speaker 3: to be cleaner than the average household bathroom. And I
7:00
Speaker 3: would tell you this, graffiti is not just limited to
7:02
Speaker 3: gas station bathrooms. We found phone numbers and filthy drawings
7:06
Speaker 3: in many home bathrooms.
7:07
Speaker 2: No, no, no, no, no, no.
7:10
Speaker 3: We did.
7:10
Speaker 1: You found graffiti and phone numbers scrawled in a guy's
7:14
Speaker 1: own bathroom?
7:16
Speaker 3: We found that some people, not all, some homeowners, and
7:19
Speaker 3: I don't know what their problem is, will actually carve
7:23
Speaker 3: filthy drawings into their own mirrors. You know, you've seen them, the....
7:30
Speaker 2: Hello?
7:31
Speaker 3: Yes, sir.
7:32
Speaker 1: You're saying that the homeowners are carving filthy drawings into
7:35
Speaker 1: their own mirrors?
7:36
Speaker 3: Yeah. And the elongated penises and all of that stuff.
7:41
Speaker 2: In their own showers, in their own bathrooms?
7:43
Speaker 3: Yes. Vomit and urine-stained floors. Weekend gas station mechanics are cleaner.
7:51
Speaker 3: than a housewife in her own master bedroom. So when
7:53
Speaker 3: you want to squeal about gas prices, remember what a
7:56
Speaker 3: great experience going to the service station is.
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Speaker 1: I don't know that you're going to get a lot
7:58
Speaker 1: of people agreeing with that, sir, okay? Going to a
8:00
Speaker 1: service station is fun to get gasoline. It's great to
8:03
Speaker 1: see a gas station that's open when I need gas.
8:06
Speaker 1: But I'm going to tell you, if I've got to
8:07
Speaker 1: use the bathroom in a gas station, I generally hold
8:11
Speaker 1: my nose.
8:12
Speaker 3: I don't know where you're going to urinate.
8:16
Speaker 1: That's really none of your business where I'm going to
8:18
Speaker 1: do that. It's just any gas station generally is a
8:22
Speaker 1: very distressing experience going into.
8:25
Speaker 2: The restroom there.
8:26
Speaker 3: Well, I don't understand that.
8:27
Speaker 1: Well, I would suggest maybe you leave your own gas station,
8:31
Speaker 1: and that's probably it. You get all your gas at
8:32
Speaker 1: your own gas station.
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Speaker 3: That's right. So I don't really get around to a
8:36
Speaker 3: lot of gas stations.
8:37
Speaker 2: Well, you ought to.
8:38
Speaker 1: If you're a member of a coalition of service station
8:40
Speaker 1: operators in this area, you ought to get around to
8:42
Speaker 1: some of these gas stations. Some of the very guys
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Speaker 1: that you're in this coalition with probably got a bathroom
8:47
Speaker 1: that stinks. But all of this stuff, Mr. Green, belies
8:51
Speaker 1: the point. We're paying more for gasoline.
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Speaker 2: We want to know why.
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Speaker 1: And you're justifying it because you're giving me a free
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Speaker 1: squeegee and free paper towels.
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Speaker 3: That is a real cost in terms of money. I
9:01
Speaker 3: would advise your listeners... It costs me money to stack
9:05
Speaker 3: the paper towels. And the blue paper towels that you
9:08
Speaker 3: get at a gas station, I would ask you, where
9:10
Speaker 3: else can you get those?
9:11
Speaker 2: I'm sorry?
9:12
Speaker 3: The blue paper towel that you use to wipe your
9:15
Speaker 3: windshield down. Right. Where do you get those?
9:19
Speaker 2: I don't know.
9:19
Speaker 3: Have you seen them anywhere else?
9:21
Speaker 2: No, sir, I have not.
9:23
Speaker 3: You can only get those at a gas station. That costs.
9:28
Speaker 3: So all of these things add up. And we would
9:31
Speaker 3: ask for your listeners to send a little love our
9:34
Speaker 3: way when it comes to providing these services.
9:37
Speaker 1: I know that they're going to be in the future
9:39
Speaker 1: as we continue to evolve here at the turn of
9:41
Speaker 1: the millennium.
9:42
Speaker 2: These service plazas where you have gas and.
9:45
Speaker 3: Gas, restaurants, all kinds of things. And that's what your
9:49
Speaker 3: modern service station is evolving into. People don't recognize the
9:52
Speaker 3: convenience of the service station. And we jacked the price
9:55
Speaker 3: on a gallon of gas a few cents, and you'd
9:58
Speaker 3: think that we'd set fire to an orphanage and locked
10:01
Speaker 3: all the children in the rooms. That's literally.
10:04
Speaker 2: Well, I don't think it's that.
10:05
Speaker 3: Well, that's how it feels to a lot of us.
10:08
Speaker 1: All right, 1-800-449-8686, Phil Henry Show.
10:11
Speaker 2: Richard, you're on the Phil Henry Show. Hello.
10:13
Speaker 3: Hi, how are you?
10:14
Speaker 2: Yes, sir.
10:14
Speaker 4: I've been listening to this guy. Is he a gas
10:17
Speaker 4: station owner? He's so far off base, it's unbelievable.
10:20
Speaker 3: Are you in the business? No, I'm not.
10:23
Speaker 4: But I drive a lot, and I'm in gas stations
10:26
Speaker 4: all the time. You tell me that people use air
10:28
Speaker 4: and water, and that's free. Rarely do I see people
10:32
Speaker 4: using water in the gas stations. Every gas station that
10:35
Speaker 4: I see that's got air charges a quarter or half
10:37
Speaker 4: a buck a year.
10:38
Speaker 3: Well, I said that. Some of the gas stations do
10:40
Speaker 3: charge a quarter. Ours is free. Our service station is free.
10:43
Speaker 4: Congratulations, but 98% of those that I see are not free.
10:47
Speaker 4: I heard you mention something about a prearranged inspection day.
10:53
Speaker 4: That certainly gives everybody the chance to clean everything up.
10:56
Speaker 4: But when you say that people have got more graffiti
10:58
Speaker 4: in their bathroom and home, that's the most ridiculous thing
11:02
Speaker 4: I've ever heard.
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Speaker 3: No, what I was trying to say and make the
11:04
Speaker 3: point with Mr. Henry is some home, I don't know,
11:06
Speaker 3: your home, I'm sure you don't graffiti your own walls, correct?
11:09
Speaker 4: I do not.
11:10
Speaker 3: All right, so you don't spray paint anything in your
11:12
Speaker 3: own bathroom?
11:13
Speaker 2: Of course he doesn't. Neither do I. Most of the
11:15
Speaker 2: people listening.
11:17
Speaker 4: And I don't believe I ever knew anybody who did that.
11:21
Speaker 3: All right, well, Mr. Henry made a good point. He
11:23
Speaker 3: said to me, Mr. Green, get out of your own
11:25
Speaker 3: gas station. Go see some other places. I would suggest
11:27
Speaker 3: to you that you need to leave your home and
11:29
Speaker 3: go see other homes.
11:30
Speaker 2: Oh, come on.
11:31
Speaker 1: I've been in and out of people's homes my whole life.
11:33
Speaker 1: Who spray paints graffiti on their own bathroom walls?
11:37
Speaker 3: I had a very dear friend who used to put
11:39
Speaker 3: obscene drawings.
11:41
Speaker 2: In his bathroom.
11:42
Speaker 4: I hear there are people that do things like that.
11:44
Speaker 5: Right.
11:44
Speaker 4: But when you say that people's homes are worse than
11:48
Speaker 4: gas stations, that is so far from the truth that
11:50
Speaker 4: I can't believe you were to make a statement like that.
11:52
Speaker 3: No, I'm saying people's bathrooms are generally filthier than I get.
11:55
Speaker 2: That's hard to believe.
11:58
Speaker 4: I certainly would agree that there are people that probably
12:00
Speaker 4: have filthy bathrooms. But when you say that they're generally
12:02
Speaker 4: filthier than gas stations, that just isn't even close to
12:05
Speaker 4: being true.
12:05
Speaker 3: I'm just saying whoever it is that's cleaning up the
12:07
Speaker 3: bathrooms in today's home, whether it's the housewife or a
12:10
Speaker 3: maid service... They're dropping the ball big time because it's,
12:14
Speaker 3: I'd rather sit in a gas station bathroom. And I'm
12:17
Speaker 3: talking about some places, and Mr. Henry, forgive me, but
12:19
Speaker 3: these are places where homosexual sex has taken place.
12:22
Speaker 2: We don't need to know that.
12:24
Speaker 3: I'm sorry?
12:24
Speaker 2: We don't need to know that.
12:25
Speaker 4: I think that's irrelevant. My girlfriend and I have traveled
12:28
Speaker 4: around extensively, and whenever we have to stop someplace... Half
12:32
Speaker 4: the time she says to me, can we go someplace else?
12:34
Speaker 3: I don't like that.
12:34
Speaker 2: Nobody wants to go to the bathroom at a gas station.
12:37
Speaker 4: People don't want to do that anymore.
12:38
Speaker 3: And what about the people that are stealing squeegees from
12:40
Speaker 3: me on a daily basis? That costs thousands of dollars
12:43
Speaker 3: a year.
12:44
Speaker 4: Thousands of dollars.
12:45
Speaker 3: They're stealing squeegees on me left and right.
12:47
Speaker 4: Here in Clearwater, Florida, we've had the price of gas
12:50
Speaker 4: go up 20, 25 cents a gallon in the last week. Now,
12:53
Speaker 4: you're telling me that soap and paper towels, you didn't
12:58
Speaker 4: just start putting soap and paper towels in there two
13:00
Speaker 4: weeks ago. You've been using that for a long time.
13:03
Speaker 3: Well, that costs money, but I also asked Mr. Eddie,
13:05
Speaker 3: the blue paper towel, which you don't find anywhere else
13:08
Speaker 3: but a service station. Okay?
13:12
Speaker 4: Those are the things that they sell to mechanics, right?
13:14
Speaker 3: Yeah. Can you get that anywhere?
13:17
Speaker 1: No.
13:17
Speaker 3: Only we can. That costs.
13:19
Speaker 2: Well, put in some white paper. I don't care whether
13:22
Speaker 2: they're blue or not.
13:23
Speaker 3: Blue is what we've always used.
13:24
Speaker 4: Well, I'm not interested in designer paper towels.
13:27
Speaker 3: Well, that costs money.
13:28
Speaker 4: I'm going to tell you something.
13:30
Speaker 3: Use the white ones.
13:30
Speaker 4: Half the time I go into a bathroom, there isn't
13:32
Speaker 4: any paper towels and there isn't any soap. And I
13:35
Speaker 4: just turn around and walk out. And then I heard
13:37
Speaker 4: you make a comment about people do come in there
13:39
Speaker 4: and pee on the floor and things like that. So
13:41
Speaker 4: you're contradicting yourself.
13:42
Speaker 3: Well, I'm saying that a lot of these people who
13:44
Speaker 3: think they're so clean come in and puke all over.
13:46
Speaker 3: We special ordered, by the way, the blue paper towel
13:48
Speaker 3: from Spain. All right, so that's what I'm talking about. Well, congratulations.
13:53
Speaker 4: Is that worth an extra 25 cents a gallon for
13:55
Speaker 4: me to pump my own gas?
13:56
Speaker 3: So what are you telling me? You want the white
13:57
Speaker 3: paper towel? I don't understand. You want the white paper towel?
13:59
Speaker 2: Yes, put the white paper towel in. The blue paper towel.
14:01
Speaker 1: I don't need to wipe down my windshield with a
14:03
Speaker 1: blue towel if it comes from Spain.
14:05
Speaker 3: Well, mister, I don't know where you're getting your ideas
14:09
Speaker 3: because the blue paper towel is standard.
14:11
Speaker 2: All right, look it. Richard, thank you very much for
14:13
Speaker 2: your call.
14:14
Speaker 6: 1-800-449-8686.
14:18
Speaker 2: They've got to order in those blue paper towels from Spain,
14:20
Speaker 2: the ones at the gas station?
14:21
Speaker 1: All right, the price of gas is going up. We
14:24
Speaker 1: have a service station operator here and other service station
14:26
Speaker 1: operators who believe, well, towels, squeegees, soap for your hands,
14:30
Speaker 1: all this stuff more than makes up for the occasional
14:33
Speaker 1: incremental increase in gas prices.
14:34
Speaker 2: It's the Phil Henry Show.
14:35
Speaker 1: 1-800-449-8686 is the number to the Phil Henry Show. I
14:44
Speaker 1: thought we lost Robert Green, who's my guest this hour.
14:46
Speaker 1: He is a service station operator. operator, a member of
14:49
Speaker 1: a coalition of service station operators in the Southern California area,
14:53
Speaker 1: but what's true here is true across the country. The
14:55
Speaker 1: price of gas is going up, and you're saying it's
14:56
Speaker 1: going up because the price of the overhead, correct?
15:02
Speaker 3: Well, not only our overhead, but I also mentioned the
15:04
Speaker 3: refinement costs. We operate, obviously, pumps, Mr. Henry. The average
15:09
Speaker 3: motorist who comes into a gas station gets his gas
15:12
Speaker 3: from a gasoline pump. That pump is operated electronically. The
15:17
Speaker 3: price of that has gone up, unless you want us
15:20
Speaker 3: to go back to doing what they used to do
15:21
Speaker 3: and we could give you your gas in a bucket.
15:24
Speaker 3: And that is possible, and a lot of service station
15:27
Speaker 3: operators are considering that to cut the cost.
15:30
Speaker 2: Wait a minute. You're going to give me a bucket
15:31
Speaker 2: of gasoline?
15:31
Speaker 5: Mr.
15:33
Speaker 3: Henry, you want to cry about the price of gas?
15:35
Speaker 2: Let's be clear about something, Mr.
15:36
Speaker 3: Green.
15:37
Speaker 2: I'm not crying. I'm asking a question, okay? The price
15:40
Speaker 2: of gas.
15:40
Speaker 6: All right.
15:41
Speaker 3: You asked the question of price of gas. You don't
15:43
Speaker 3: want it to go up. I take it that's true?
15:45
Speaker 2: Yeah.
15:46
Speaker 3: All right, well, I can give it to you in
15:48
Speaker 3: a bucket.
15:49
Speaker 2: How much would that cut the price per gallon?
15:53
Speaker 3: If I gave it to you?
15:54
Speaker 2: If you gave it to me in a bucket.
15:57
Speaker 3: I could probably give it to you for, right now
15:59
Speaker 3: we're doing premium at $ 2 a gallon. I could give
16:01
Speaker 3: it to you for about $ 1.
16:02
Speaker 2: 30.
16:02
Speaker 3: $ 1. 30 for premium? Yeah.
16:06
Speaker 2: So I pull in.
16:07
Speaker 3: I give you a bucket of gas. Go ahead.
16:13
Speaker 2: I don't know how I can.
16:14
Speaker 3: Well, the problem is you need a funnel. I don't
16:16
Speaker 3: want you spilling it all over my driveway. There's a
16:17
Speaker 3: lot of stuff that's going to happen. You spill it
16:19
Speaker 3: all over your shoes, and if you're smoking a cigarette....
16:26
Speaker 2: Obviously, there's prohibitions against that.
16:27
Speaker 3: That is correct, yeah.
16:29
Speaker 2: Let me go to Virginia on the Phil Henry Show. Virginia?
16:32
Speaker 6: Yes, this is Virginia.
16:33
Speaker 2: Go ahead. You're on the air.
16:34
Speaker 6: Okay, first of all, you're only paying 70 cents for overhead, basically.
16:40
Speaker 6: It gathers $ 1. 30 for that last comment.
16:42
Speaker 3: I would give a guy a bucket of premium. A
16:44
Speaker 3: bucket of premium? In other words, it's a bucket.
16:47
Speaker 7: A bucket, right. What, five gallons? A gallon?
16:49
Speaker 6: What size bucket?
16:50
Speaker 3: Probably about a five-gallon. Yeah, about a five-gallon bucket.
16:52
Speaker 6: Okay, so a five-gallon bucket for $ 1. 30 a gallon, that's
16:54
Speaker 6: 70 cents overhead. That's not why the price of gas
16:58
Speaker 6: has gone up.
16:58
Speaker 3: Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a minute. I'm charging a guy
17:00
Speaker 3: $ 2 to pump it out of a pump, but I
17:02
Speaker 3: could stick the bucket down into a well. Robert Green.
17:05
Speaker 5: Sorry, Mr.
17:05
Speaker 6: Green?
17:06
Speaker 3: Robert Green, yeah. Robert Green. Okay, Mr.
17:08
Speaker 6: Green, this is Virginia.
17:09
Speaker 3: Listen.
17:09
Speaker 6: You're saying that everybody is crying, that we're crying about
17:13
Speaker 6: the price of gas going up?
17:14
Speaker 3: Every time I turn around.
17:15
Speaker 6: Wait, I'm sorry, I'm not finished. All I've heard you
17:17
Speaker 6: say since you started this conversation is you've cried about
17:20
Speaker 6: how clients and customers treat you as a gas station attendant.
17:24
Speaker 6: And I didn't think that's what this conversation was supposedly about. No, no,
17:26
Speaker 6: I'm saying that it costs.
17:29
Speaker 3: Me money to clean someone's pee up off the floor.
17:31
Speaker 6: I realize that, but it's always costed you money to
17:33
Speaker 6: clean someone's pee up.
17:34
Speaker 3: Yes, and the price of gas.
17:35
Speaker 6: It's always costed that money.
17:36
Speaker 3: That's right.
17:36
Speaker 6: That's not why the cost of gas has increased.
17:39
Speaker 3: Cost of gas is going up. It's always been going up.
17:42
Speaker 6: Now, why specifically, besides peeing on the floor, besides the
17:45
Speaker 6: blue towels that you can actually buy at a car
17:48
Speaker 6: auto shop?
17:49
Speaker 3: Yeah, those are all imported from Spain.
17:50
Speaker 6: Why else has the cost of gas gone out? Do
17:53
Speaker 6: you know or do you not know? Because from what
17:55
Speaker 6: I've listened to.
17:55
Speaker 3: Virginia, Mr. Henry's got me on the program where you're
17:58
Speaker 3: asking me questions and then you say I'm not finished.
18:01
Speaker 3: How many questions are you going to ask me that
18:03
Speaker 3: I'm not allowed to answer?
18:05
Speaker 2: What is that, sir?
18:05
Speaker 3: She's asking six questions that she won't let me answer.
18:08
Speaker 6: Let me just finish the whole statement. It sounds like
18:10
Speaker 6: to me... that you don't really know the reason why
18:13
Speaker 6: the price of gas is increasing.
18:15
Speaker 3: I operate a service station, all right? I know why
18:18
Speaker 3: the prices go up.
18:19
Speaker 7: Okay, so why?
18:20
Speaker 3: Not why they go up in general, but why are
18:23
Speaker 3: they going up right now? What is your experience?
18:27
Speaker 6: I'm in the oil and gas industry.
18:28
Speaker 3: Well, whatever that means. So in other words, you're the
18:30
Speaker 3: one that's feeding the public this phony baloney stuff about
18:32
Speaker 3: the environment, right? No. Look, I'm telling them the truth.
18:37
Speaker 3: I'm telling them the truth. And the truth is gas
18:40
Speaker 3: is going up either because OPEC raises the prices, cuts
18:43
Speaker 3: back production, or these people come in, urinate all over
18:46
Speaker 3: the floor, steal my blue towels.
18:48
Speaker 6: So that's why the price of gas goes up. Those
18:50
Speaker 6: are the only three reasons.
18:52
Speaker 3: Stealing squeegees? I know a guy who worked at Texas State.
18:55
Speaker 3: I don't care about your squeegees. $ 6, 000 worth of squeegees stolen.
18:57
Speaker 3: $ 6, 000 worth of squeegees stolen.
19:02
Speaker 6: Okay, wait, but you're saying you can give it to
19:03
Speaker 6: me in a bucket with no restroom, no blue towels,
19:05
Speaker 6: and no squeegees for $ 1.
19:07
Speaker 1: 30 a gallon.
19:07
Speaker 3: No, I didn't say no squeegee. You want me to
19:09
Speaker 3: eliminate all that stuff, it'll be cheaper. Just no pump,
19:12
Speaker 3: $ 1. 30 a gallon.
19:13
Speaker 2: How do I get this in a bucket?
19:15
Speaker 3: We'll dip the bucket down into a well of gasoline
19:17
Speaker 3: and pull it up.
19:18
Speaker 2: That's not safe.
19:19
Speaker 3: You're damn right it's not safe, but you're the guy
19:21
Speaker 3: who wants to save money.
19:23
Speaker 1: All right, hold on. 1-800-449-8686. Service station operator Robert Green.
19:28
Speaker 1: He could give it to us in a bucket out
19:29
Speaker 1: of a well of gasoline, but it would... It costs less,
19:32
Speaker 1: but it might not be safe. It's the Phil Henry Show,
19:35
Speaker 1: returning momentarily.
19:36
Speaker 2: 1-800-449-8686.
19:46
Speaker 1: It's the Phil Henry Show. Gas prices, as you know,
19:49
Speaker 1: have gone up. over the last couple of weeks. You
19:51
Speaker 1: must know this everywhere. Today I spent $ 2. 01 to fill
19:57
Speaker 1: the tank. That's $ 2. 01 a gallon. That was like at
20:00
Speaker 1: a mobile station, I think. And I know that traditionally
20:02
Speaker 1: ARCO has been a little bit less. I don't know
20:04
Speaker 1: where you guys go get your gas. But Robert Green
20:06
Speaker 1: is a service station operator with a coalition of service
20:09
Speaker 1: station operators trying to what?
20:11
Speaker 3: Explain what we're trying to explain to the up to
20:14
Speaker 3: the American people don't hold us responsible for this we're
20:18
Speaker 3: trying to do the very best we can with all
20:20
Speaker 3: the paper towels that are being stolen and all the.
20:23
Speaker 1: Squeegees you're saying with all your paper towels and squeegees
20:26
Speaker 1: being stolen it's costing you more money and the overhead
20:30
Speaker 1: overhead primarily now you mentioned that the cost of operating
20:33
Speaker 1: electric pump pumps is so high that you've considered giving
20:36
Speaker 1: people buckets of gasoline.
20:39
Speaker 3: We haven't consented. I'm saying, would you like it that way?
20:40
Speaker 3: Because if we can do that, they'll knock down a price.
20:44
Speaker 2: All right, 1-800-449-8686. Larry, you're on the Phil Henry Show. Hello?
20:49
Speaker 5: Hello?
20:49
Speaker 2: Yes, sir, go ahead. Larry?
20:52
Speaker 5: Yes.
20:53
Speaker 2: Go ahead, sir.
20:54
Speaker 5: No, I'm coming. I'm done with what I had to say.
20:57
Speaker 2: You didn't say anything.
20:59
Speaker 7: Huh?
20:59
Speaker 2: You didn't say anything to us. I didn't?
21:01
Speaker 8: No.
21:02
Speaker 5: I wasn't talking to you?
21:03
Speaker 2: You were talking to our screener. Now you're on the
21:04
Speaker 2: air with us.
21:05
Speaker 3: Okay.
21:06
Speaker 2: So nobody heard you, Larry, except one person.
21:08
Speaker 5: Okay, Mr.
21:08
Speaker 3: Henry.
21:09
Speaker 2: Yes, sir.
21:09
Speaker 5: I live in Hanlon, Connecticut.
21:10
Speaker 2: Yes, sir.
21:11
Speaker 3: Mr. Green. Yeah, this is Bob Green.
21:13
Speaker 5: You should get out of the service station business, Mr. Green,
21:17
Speaker 5: because you are not serving anyone.
21:19
Speaker 3: Why?
21:19
Speaker 5: Because the only thing you're doing is on the radio
21:21
Speaker 5: is complaining and telling people, what are you doing for them?
21:24
Speaker 3: I'm complaining. Who's giving me love?
21:26
Speaker 5: You're running a service station for the public. For people
21:30
Speaker 5: to buy your gasoline.
21:31
Speaker 2: Can I jump in, Larry? Let me talk first.
21:33
Speaker 1: Larry, I need to help you, though, but your radio's
21:35
Speaker 1: turned up, so you're having a hard time hearing us
21:37
Speaker 1: with your radio turned up.
21:38
Speaker 5: I'll turn it down.
21:38
Speaker 2: There you go.
21:40
Speaker 3: Get a load of this guy. He's trying to tell
21:41
Speaker 3: me what to do, and his radio's turned up.
21:43
Speaker 2: Never mind that, because that's something I'll handle, okay?
21:46
Speaker 3: Well, okay. Mr.
21:48
Speaker 1: Green?
21:48
Speaker 3: Yes, sir. I'm right here, but you've got to understand something, Larry.
21:51
Speaker 3: Those blue towels are imported from Spain.
21:53
Speaker 2: Who.
21:54
Speaker 5: Who cares? We got towels made in America. We don't
21:57
Speaker 5: need no towels in Spain.
21:58
Speaker 3: Well, the blue ones.
21:59
Speaker 5: I'm talking, you know, the blue. What color got to
22:01
Speaker 5: do with anything? Somebody watching the one that's dirty anyway.
22:04
Speaker 3: Well, the blue ones are two-ply. They absorb more dirt.
22:07
Speaker 5: Well, we can make white two-ply. We got white two-plys
22:09
Speaker 5: in America.
22:10
Speaker 3: Well, we got to send the same thing to get
22:11
Speaker 3: some paper towels. Everybody that comes to the gas station
22:14
Speaker 3: expects you to wipe down their window with a blue
22:16
Speaker 3: paper towel.
22:16
Speaker 5: I go to the health service station. They ain't got
22:18
Speaker 5: no paper towels. They ain't got no water. Only thing
22:22
Speaker 5: they got there is air and gas.
22:23
Speaker 3: You know why? Because everybody's stealing it.
22:25
Speaker 5: What?
22:26
Speaker 3: Everyone's coming through and stealing the paper towels.
22:28
Speaker 5: Man, nobody knows. You just full of crap.
22:31
Speaker 3: Larry, all I'm saying is I'm doing the best I
22:33
Speaker 3: can to hold the price down for the average consumer
22:35
Speaker 3: like you, but what am I supposed to do when
22:37
Speaker 3: a guy comes in and craps on the floor of
22:38
Speaker 3: my bathroom? I got to go out and hire somebody
22:41
Speaker 3: to clean that up.
22:42
Speaker 5: Don't the barefoot supposed to be cleaned daily anyway?
22:44
Speaker 3: What's that, sir?
22:44
Speaker 5: Don't the barefoot supposed to be cleaned daily anyway?
22:47
Speaker 3: Well, yeah, but I mean.
22:48
Speaker 5: Well, I complain about cleaning. It ain't supposed to be
22:50
Speaker 5: clean every day.
22:50
Speaker 3: Let me tell you something. You get an SUV with
22:52
Speaker 3: a parent and his kid and, you know, the mother
22:54
Speaker 3: and father, and four kids go to the bathroom. They're
22:56
Speaker 3: peeing all over the wall. They don't even make it
22:58
Speaker 3: to the bathroom. I got to go in there with
23:00
Speaker 3: a hose. And the other thing is, if I put
23:04
Speaker 3: white towels in my station, I got nothing but complaints
23:07
Speaker 3: from the customers. Man, they.
23:09
Speaker 2: What are you talking about?
23:10
Speaker 8: Huh?
23:10
Speaker 5: Everybody got one. I'm just making excuses.
23:12
Speaker 3: Well, what are you guys doing, you know, griping at
23:14
Speaker 3: me about raising the price of gas? I can't help
23:16
Speaker 3: it if you guys are stealing squeegees.
23:19
Speaker 2: Oh, come on, man. You're saying the reason why gas
23:21
Speaker 2: is going up is the squeegees.
23:23
Speaker 3: Well, not only that, but the cost of the pump.
23:25
Speaker 3: It's an electric pump. Bye, Mr. Green. Larry, why don't
23:29
Speaker 3: you bring in a bottle, and I'll give you your
23:30
Speaker 3: gas in a bottle.
23:31
Speaker 2: All right, Larry's gone. 1-800-449-8686. Denise, you're on the Phil
23:36
Speaker 2: Henry Show. Hello.
23:37
Speaker 7: Hi, how are you doing?
23:38
Speaker 2: Yes, good.
23:39
Speaker 7: I want to let Mr. Green here know that I
23:40
Speaker 7: was just at an auto parts store. I won't let
23:43
Speaker 7: you know which one. And some of the major stores
23:46
Speaker 7: have these blue paper towels.
23:48
Speaker 3: Why wouldn't you let me know which one?
23:50
Speaker 7: Because I don't think it's for those stores. I mean,
23:52
Speaker 7: unless I'm allowed to say.
23:53
Speaker 3: It on the air. Oh, I see. So, in other words,
23:54
Speaker 3: you don't want to give them any advertising.
23:58
Speaker 7: It's not that, but they do sell them. I don't
24:00
Speaker 7: know why you're saying that the public can't buy them.
24:02
Speaker 3: Which store? The blue paper towel? Yes. On the single ones,
24:06
Speaker 3: not the roll.
24:06
Speaker 7: Yes, the single ones, sir.
24:08
Speaker 3: Well, are they the ones made in Spain? Because you
24:10
Speaker 3: can tell if you pull the paper towel out, if
24:13
Speaker 3: it says made in Spain, those are the ones we use.
24:15
Speaker 2: Well, wait a minute. There's two kinds of blue paper towels.
24:18
Speaker 3: Right. The ones that are made in Spain are the
24:20
Speaker 3: ones the service stations use.
24:21
Speaker 5: Yeah.
24:23
Speaker 3: Okay.
24:25
Speaker 7: Yeah, they may not.
24:27
Speaker 3: I don't know. They're my husband's car, but they're the
24:29
Speaker 3: two-ply blue paper towels. It's not the same thing. The
24:33
Speaker 3: blue ones, we.
24:34
Speaker 2: Why does it got to be blue?
24:35
Speaker 3: Yeah.
24:36
Speaker 2: Why do the paper towels.
24:37
Speaker 3: Because we get customers who come in, ever since they
24:39
Speaker 3: were kids, they've seen the guy wipe down the window
24:41
Speaker 3: with a blue towel. Okay, you ask me, why does
24:43
Speaker 3: it have to be blue? It's like, why does Coca-Cola
24:46
Speaker 3: have to come in a bottle? Because people like it
24:48
Speaker 3: like that.
24:48
Speaker 7: It comes in a can, too.
24:50
Speaker 3: And in a bottle, because you got all these old-timers, oh,
24:52
Speaker 3: I used to remember when I was in a freaking bottle. Oh, good. Okay, great.
24:55
Speaker 3: Now I get Grandma rolling in. Why are you wiping
24:57
Speaker 3: down my windshield with a white paper towel? It used
24:59
Speaker 3: to be blue. Okay, I'll get the blue kind. Is
25:02
Speaker 3: that the kind made in Spain? Yes, it's the kind
25:04
Speaker 3: made in Spain. And the price of that thing is
25:06
Speaker 3: going to the roof. If they keep jacking the price
25:09
Speaker 3: on the blue paper towel, you'll be paying three gallons
25:11
Speaker 3: for a gallon of gas. Not at your gas station,
25:13
Speaker 3: I won't. Three dollars for a gallon of gas.
25:15
Speaker 2: Oh, come on. Three dollars for a gallon. Use the
25:17
Speaker 2: white paper towel, then, if that's what it means.
25:19
Speaker 7: You're just another money-hungry you-know-what out there. who just wants
25:25
Speaker 7: to make a buck the easy way.
25:26
Speaker 3: Where did you get these paper towels again? At AutoZone. Where? AutoZone.
25:32
Speaker 7: It's an auto parts store. Kragan Auto Parts.
25:34
Speaker 3: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
25:35
Speaker 7: Walmart, Kmart. They all have them.
25:36
Speaker 3: I don't think they sell the ones made in Spain.
25:38
Speaker 2: Okay, great. Thank you very much.
25:41
Speaker 3: There's a shortage of blue paper towels in Spain, so
25:43
Speaker 3: the price.
25:43
Speaker 2: Well, let's don't buy them, then!
25:45
Speaker 3: I don't want to be spoken to as if.
25:49
Speaker 1: Well, I'm sorry, but just don't buy them. I would
25:51
Speaker 1: rather you wipe my windshield down with a newspaper. that
25:54
Speaker 1: have to pay three bucks or two dollars or whatever.
25:58
Speaker 3: It's not just the paper towels. It's the kids crapping
26:00
Speaker 3: on the floor.
26:01
Speaker 2: Kids crapping on the floor. You go into the average... Oh, well,
26:04
Speaker 2: never mind. Here is Joe on the Phil Henry Show. Hello, Joe.
26:08
Speaker 3: Yeah, I want to.
26:09
Speaker 8: Talk to this clown about the bathroom.
26:11
Speaker 3: I'm a clown.
26:12
Speaker 8: Yeah, you're a clown because I think you're a liar because.
26:14
Speaker 3: I'm a liar? I work for a living, buddy.
26:18
Speaker 8: I'm a residential painter. I've been in, on the average,
26:21
Speaker 8: 200 houses.
26:22
Speaker 3: What's that mean? You're a burglar, then?
26:24
Speaker 2: Okay, watch it.
26:25
Speaker 3: Well, he's insulting me.
26:26
Speaker 8: I called you a clown because I know for a
26:29
Speaker 8: fact that the graffiti that you're talking about in residential bathrooms,
26:33
Speaker 8: I've been in 200 houses a year, and I have
26:37
Speaker 8: never seen anything such as that in any residential bathroom,
26:41
Speaker 8: even in a lower-income area.
26:44
Speaker 1: Well, what Robert is saying is that he has less
26:48
Speaker 1: graffiti and less filth on the floor in a gas
26:51
Speaker 1: station bathroom than the average home.
26:53
Speaker 3: Absolutely. Well, that's ridiculous. I went into a guy's house.
26:57
Speaker 3: He had a poker game the other night. This is
26:59
Speaker 3: his own home in his own bathroom, and he's got
27:01
Speaker 3: like a large, and forgive me, Mr. Andrew, but he's
27:03
Speaker 3: drawn like a big, you know, male penis all over
27:07
Speaker 3: the wall.
27:07
Speaker 8: Well, maybe you ought to get different poker buddies.
27:10
Speaker 3: I mean, that's not what I mean. You've got to
27:11
Speaker 3: be kidding.
27:12
Speaker 2: Why would a guy deface his own bathroom?
27:14
Speaker 3: Because they get into a groove. They're used to it.
27:17
Speaker 3: They see a bathroom, they pull out a marks a lot,
27:19
Speaker 3: and they start writing down phony phone numbers and, you know. Well,
27:23
Speaker 3: that's ridiculous.
27:24
Speaker 8: I've never seen anything like it.
27:25
Speaker 3: You've never? No, wait a second. You've never seen anything
27:27
Speaker 3: like that? What town do you work in? Never.
27:31
Speaker 8: I work in Wilmington.
27:32
Speaker 3: I work in Dover, Delaware. Okay, see, those towns are
27:35
Speaker 3: at the low end. Yeah, see, Wilmington and Dover both
27:39
Speaker 3: don't have that. Oh, no? All the other towns do, apparently,
27:43
Speaker 3: in Delaware.
27:44
Speaker 8: Well, I think.
27:46
Speaker 2: All the other towns in Delaware have it except.
27:47
Speaker 3: Except for Wilmington and Dover.
27:49
Speaker 8: Oh, is that a statistic that you came up with?
27:52
Speaker 3: Sir, I'm not creating these.
27:53
Speaker 2: How do you know Wilmington and Dover? Have you got
27:56
Speaker 2: it state by state?
27:57
Speaker 3: We did a state by state breakdown, yeah. And it
28:01
Speaker 3: turned out that Dover and Wilmington have the least percentage
28:04
Speaker 3: of people graffiting their own bathrooms.
28:06
Speaker 8: Well, how about New York? I used to live in
28:08
Speaker 8: New York, and I've seen some pretty filthy bathrooms.
28:09
Speaker 5: There, too.
28:10
Speaker 3: They do it a lot there, yeah. What are the
28:13
Speaker 3: best states, then? The best states for what? Cleanliness?
28:17
Speaker 8: Yeah, cleanliness in the bathrooms.
28:18
Speaker 3: Probably Delaware's number one.
28:20
Speaker 2: Oh, bull crap. You're making this stuff.
28:22
Speaker 3: Huh? What are you laughing about?
28:24
Speaker 2: Delaware's number one. Look it, man.
28:26
Speaker 1: Just do us all a big fat favor.
28:28
Speaker 2: Tell us why the price of gas is going up.
28:32
Speaker 3: Well, these environmental constraints. Look, you want the price to
28:34
Speaker 3: go down? Get rid of these environmental constraints. Look it,
28:38
Speaker 3: I know I love ducks and geese and everything, too,
28:40
Speaker 3: but Jesus.
28:42
Speaker 2: Let's kill a couple so I can have a cheap
28:43
Speaker 2: gallon of gas.
28:44
Speaker 3: What I say.
28:46
Speaker 1: World famous Phil Hendry show is executive produced by Phil