ON A street in London’s East End, among art galleries and upmarket gyms, lies what looks like a filling station. Yet beneath its rickety forecourt roof, the pumps have been replaced by vendors offering a range of faddish foods, including Japanese hot dogs and fish-finger sandwiches devised by a celebrity chef. One thing not on the menu is petrol. The firm that used to run the filling station left the site in 2013; the space is now home to businesses that sell food rather than fuel.
This is a familiar tale. Although combined petrol and diesel consumption has grown by over 75% since 1970, the number of petrol stations has fallen by nearly 80% (see chart). The decline has been especially steep in cities. London has nearly half as many petrol stations per car as the Scottish Highlands; only four remain within the central congestion-charge zone.
The collapse came in two waves. Between the peak in 1966 and the end of the 1980s, independent village petrol stores were put out of business by oil companies offering self-service and low prices. Then, from the early 1990s, oil firms were undercut by supermarkets, which sold petrol at...Continue reading
via Brian Rushton, Running on empty
No comments:
Post a Comment