On a recent roadtrip my girlfriend was thinking about the impact of pay-at-the-pump systems on convenience store sales. I am certain that the ability to purchase gas without having to enter the store has severely negatively impacted impulse buys. Many of the modern gas stations along Interstate highways combine fast food restaurants with convenience stores. An interesting study would be to see how many drivers fuel up, pay at the pump and then go through the drive through to acquire beverages. People are in a hurry. The more they can do in their cars the better. Even if the in vehicle waiting time matches or surpasses the in store waiting time people prefer to wait in their vehicles where they can use wireless phones and vehicle entertainment systems (audio and video.)

While many vendors are racing to bring Internet connectivity to the gas pump enabling the ubiquitous advertising supported news and sports headlines even email access and MP3 downloads. While MP3 downloads might have potential it's not enough to build a business model around. No one is going to read serious email on a gas pump. Besides people have other portable devices for that. Much like pay at the pump technology has swept through the industry Wi-Fi connectivity will be widely available in the near future.

My girlfriend did have a very good idea. She suggested linking vending machines to gas pumps allowing people to pay for vending purchases as part of their pay at the pump purchase much like adding the purchase of a car wash to a gas purchase. Who wouldn't purchase a Coke or bottle of water with their gas on a hot summer day? The key is to locate the vending machines close to the pumps so people perceive it as quick and easy.

On our next fuel stop we saw a variation on this very idea. The fueling location we stopped at had a deli sandwich shop. Sandwich menus were tapped to the gas pumps. A simple intercom allowed gas customers to call in their orders while fueling their vehicles. There was no provision for paying for your order at the pump. The intent was to save waiting time for sandwich buyers through pre-ordering food.