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Two years ago today, the state of Oregon kicked its commonsense gear into overdrive and left New Jersey in the dust — by rescinding its ban on self-serve gas.
That made the Garden State the only state in America still clinging to this outdated prohibition.
It’s long past time New Jersey follow suit.
To that end, state Sen. Jon Bramnick (R-Middlesex, Morris, Somerset, Union) recently introduced legislation, the Motorist Fueling Choice and Convenience Act.
While the bill would still require gas stations with four or more pumps to provide attendant service between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m., it would also let station owners offer self-pump terminals — and discounted gas — to the customers who choose to use them.
Now, all you folks who enjoy being waited on, hear me out.
Bramnick is not advocating that every gas station switch to self-serve.
He’s merely arguing that New Jersey should stop making it illegal for businesses to open self-pump stations, if that’s what residents want.
Why can’t Jersey drivers make this decision themselves? For the last 76 years, the answer has been drive-by corporate cronyism.
It was not always this way.
As The Star-Ledger has reported, in the late 1940s, Irving Reingold, a hardworking Jersey entrepreneur, opened a 24-pump gas station on Route 17 in Hackensack.
His gas was nearly 14% cheaper than anywhere else in the state — because his customers pumped it themselves, and he saved on labor costs.
Drivers loved it. Reingold’s competition, which quietly coordinated to keep prices inflated, didn’t.
The hard-nosed entrepreneur was Jersey Strong and stood his ground, so one of his enemies went so far as to shoot up his station.
Reingold responded not by closing shop but by installing bulletproof glass.
So, his rivals went hat in hand to their friends in the government. The resulting legislation, the Retail Gasoline Dispensing Safety Act and Regulations, banned self-pump gas altogether.
As radio personality Lyle Van said at the time, “Chalk up another victory for the organized pressure groups.”
And New Jersey has been stuck with that crony handout ever since.
It’s time to make a U-turn. (Yes, Jersey — I know: That means a jug-handle three exits past where we want to go.)
Per a New Jersey Gasoline-Convenience-Automotive Association survey, stations could afford to lower pump prices by seven to 23 cents a gallon if self-service became legal again.
That’s as much as $154 a year, based on an estimated 671.6 gallons per average driver.
Sure, that may not seem like much to some residents, and many may still prefer the convenience of attendant-pumped gas.
But why not let your Jersey brothers and sisters pump, and save, if they want to?
Giving them this choice wouldn’t just help them — it would help everyone.
When lower-cost self-pump stations sprout up, even full-service retailers would face pressure to cut costs and keep customers from driving away.
They may not match the rock-bottom prices of self-serve, but they would still have more of an incentive to please their client base.
Plus, a station can offer both self- or attendant-served.
What’s not to like about that?
It’s 2025. We have decades of data and evidence proving that the “safety concerns” peddled to advance the self-pump gas ban were nothing more than blown smoke.
So why don’t we do something about it?
New Jersey residents don’t take kindly to getting played. Many of us routinely flip the bird when we have been wronged. I learned that from my dad (Thanks, Dad!). Then we act.
So let’s do the same to this crony baloney ban on self-serve gas.
Every other state has ditched this ridiculous corporate giveaway.
The time has come for New Jersey to do the same.
Bramnick’s Motorist Fueling Choice and Convenience Act is the right vehicle to make this happen.
The New Jersey legislature should pass it pronto — and full speed ahead.
Tommy Behnke is the president of Point Made PR, a full-service public affairs firm
English (US)