Signs that can't display the gas price!

[bennelson]

I saw a weird gas price sign the other day.

It's one of those large electronic signs with the LEDS in the shape of a rectangular "8".

The price looked like it said "-1.09".


Wow, they pay me to take the gas?

Took me a minute to figure out that it was a "4" with the upper-left part of the digit missing. I was not sure if it was burned out, or if the sign simply didn't have a light element there. A 1, 2, or 3 does NOT use that part of the sign character.

Perhaps this sign was never designed to display $4 a gallon gasoline?

A couple summers ago, I was working out in the middle of nowhere. There was a REALLY old-fashioned gas station which still had pumps with mechanical counters. Those counters only went up to .999 dollars per gallon.
There was a hand-written sign on the pump saying to double or triple the number on the pump for what you actually pay.

Anyone else seen gas pumps that can't even tell the right price? Got a photo of it?

[wagonman76]

Id say it was probably burned out. Dont know who would make a sign missing just that one segment.

Dont have a photo, but after Katrina in 05, this little station near Vanderbilt (about 15 miles from me, middle of nowhere) did that. Pump couldnt go over $3 so they put a sign saying the price will be double in the store.

Ellsworth co-op still has mechanical counters too, but Ive never seen any price limitations with those.

Many moons ago, many stations had a fixed "1" for when gas was over $1 a gallon. It didnt go up to $2 so they had cardboard signs and stuff.

I think nowadays every station around here is set up for anything the oil companies want to charge.

[cfg83]

bennelson -

Sometimes I think it's deliberate. This is our favorite half-burnt freeway sign :

chUCKY CHEESE

CarloSW2

[Ford Man]

Originally Posted by bennelson

I saw a weird gas price sign the other day.

It's one of those large electronic signs with the LEDS in the shape of a rectangular "8".

The price looked like it said "-1.09".




A couple summers ago, I was working out in the middle of nowhere. There was a REALLY old-fashioned gas station which still had pumps with mechanical counters. Those counters only went up to .999 dollars per gallon.
There was a hand-written sign on the pump saying to double or triple the number on the pump for what you actually pay.

Anyone else seen gas pumps that can't even tell the right price? Got a photo of it?

It's been a whole since I saw one of those old pumps. They were common back in the late 70's and early '80's when gas had just went over the $1.00 mark, but most stations now have replaced them with the newer digital type. It's bad when you pull into a station and it says multiply total times 5 to get actual cost. I did see a station recently that when you pulled in the price on the pump was representing the price per 1/2 gallon. I guess they were too ashamed to put the actual price on the pump or they were hoping people wouldn't stop to figure how much it came to per gallon, but they did have a sign stating this was the price per 1/2 gallon. I know I started to buy some gas there until I figured what the actual price was.

[Johnny Mullet]

I have heard of these older pumps, but never seen one in the present time.

[Sean T.]

I saw one this summer... but didn't have my camera

[RH77]

Originally Posted by cfg83

bennelson -

Sometimes I think it's deliberate. This is our favorite half-burnt freeway sign :

chUCKY CHEESE

CarloSW2

Hilarious! 2 favs:

Back in Southeastern Ohio -- A McD's sign once advertised the "Big-N-Nasty" sandwich (the FFT was likely fired for that one).

And another one that I saw every day driving to work in the summer: "Drive-Up Winder" for a liquor store. It made a car mag like Car and Driver. I couldn't believe it when I saw it in the magazine. It was funny the first couple commutes, but after that