Union 76 Food Mart

Like other gas stations in the state of Oregon, you’re not allowed to pump your own gas here. Unlike any other gas station in Oregon I’ve been to, their policy is that the pump attendant does not handle cash, but tells you that you must personally walk your cash into the store and pre-​pay the cashier. He will, of course, happily take your bank card, and make sure to charge you more for using it.
So my choices were either: to pre-​pay in cash, which would require me to predict exactly how much gas I’d need for a fillup, and not being psychic, this would force me to make two trips into the store to 1. pre-​pay and 2. go back into the store again afterwards to get my change, or: to pay with my card and be charged extra for no reason, given that the markup gas stations tag onto card purchases is typically much higher than the minimal fee the credit card company or bank charges them for the transaction. I elected to give the cashier $ 25 and settle for less than a full tank.
The asinine policy of this gas station combines the worst of both worlds: the lack of personal control resulting from being forced to give up my keys (I have a locking gas cap) and wait around for the attendant to do everything, and the inconvenience — usually associated with built-​up urban areas where no one trusts their customers — of being forced to predict my purchase beforehand and repeatedly walk back and forth to the cashier, because their pump attendant is apparently too important a personage to handle mere cash, as if he were a member of some kind of European royalty.
I ended up going into the store a second time anyway, to get some coffee and to share my opinion of their bizarre policy with the cashier. Her response was to alternately argue with me and gainsay or deny all the points I raised (example: Her: «It’s not about trust!» Uh… right. So why don’t you let the attendant pump my gas first if I’m paying cash? Like every other gas station in Oregon I’ve ever been to?) and to tell me to speak to the manager or call their corporate customer service number. Obviously, their manager wasn’t there at 1:30 in the morning, and I didn’t feel like calling their corporate number, wading through voicemail, and being put on hold and transferred back and forth between different people, who would just tell me the same thing she did anyway.
By the time I came out of the store the second time, the attendant was done pumping my gas. At first I didn’t see him anywhere, and realized I was now going to have to track him down to get my keys back. Great. Then I saw that he had helpfully left my keys, unattended, inserted into my door lock, where any random passerby could take them if so inclined. I found it symbolic of my entire experience with this gas station that they didn’t trust me enough to pump a whopping $ 30 worth of gas for me before I’d paid for it, but had no problem at all with leaving my keys around unattended for anyone to spot and drive off in my $ 40K car. That’s some great regard for the customer there… NOT.
NOTE: It isn’t a major trauma for me to have to walk back and forth to the cashier a few times, even at 1:30 in the morning, when it’s in the 30s, and I’m worn out from driving through heavy rainstorms and being trapped in Oregon all day before because of the landslide that closed I-​5 North. It’s the principle of the thing. If a gas station is going to require me to let an attendant pump my gas — the fact that it’s state law doesn’t change the extra cost and inconvenience that is passed on to me — then they should make an attempt to give me the benefits of that situation. The way Union 76 Foodmart has it set up now, they get all the advantages of both payment systems, and the customer gets all the disadvantages. If I wanted to be treated like an anonymous, vaguely suspect number whose existence is more or less irrelevant to the business I’m dealing with, I wouldn’t make a habit of stopping off in small towns like Salem to fill my tank.
And then they add insult to injury by trying to gouge you extra if you want to use a credit card.
Since I didn’t get a full tank in Salem, I had to fight my way through the usual daytime traffic logjam around Tacoma and find a place to gas up there again on the way home to Seattle. This added a good half hour to what was already an unpleasant and exhausting trip. Thank you, Union 76 Foodmart of Salem, for showing that can-​do spirit and willingness to please the customer that is the hallmark of any outstanding customer service operation. Obviously, I’ll never stop at this station again.

The gas attendants are always friendly… and they even wash your window! And who does that nowadays!!! They would get 5 stars, but they have some funky credit card system when you pay… weird. Anyway, good location off 12^th St.