Nice links on gas prices. Thanks!
I'm not that old, but I actually remember when there used to be "Mom-and-Pop" gas stations on a lot of the corners in our town. There also used to be "Mom-and-Pop" convenient stores, grocery stores, etc. Heck, this was only 5-10 years ago.
Now almost every gas station/convenient store is part of a multi-national corporation of some type. Mom and Pop are dead; they have been replaced by "Ameristop" and "Citgo."
You could always find cool stuff in Mom and Pop stores.. Now it's all about conformity! This is the only part of post-modern capitalism that I passionately hate.