floriduhgirl

There’s some funny business going on at South Florida gas stations, and I was one of the victims.  In many stations found in less than reputable neighborhoods (often off of I-95), there is a little ploy that is tricking motorists into thinking they’re about to fill up the tank at the cheapest rate seen on this side of the Sunshine State.  Unless extremely observant–and possessing better than 20/20 vision–what the driver will fail to see is that the advertised rate is for cash payment only.  Credit card payment is a higher cost, often 10 to 20 cents a gallon more expensive, and rarely displayed.  In other words, by some careful manipulation of store signage, owners are gaslighting their customers.

What, you may ask, is gaslighting?  Well, I wouldn’t know the answer to that question either except that as many of you know, I am a diehard “Young & the Restless” (Y&R) fan.  Every day I get home from work, flip open the laptop and bring up that day’s episode, courtesy of CBS.com.  It is my one true guilty pleasure.  This particular soap incorporates the gaslight phenomena into a storyline at least once every couple of years, thus my familiarity with the term.

Gaslighting, according to Wikipedia (I know, I know, not the most reliable of sources, but whatever; deal with it) is a form of psychological abuse in which false information is presented to the victim with the intent of making them doubt their own memory and perception. It may simply be the denial by an abuser that previous abusive incidents ever occurred, or it could be the staging of bizarre events by the abuser with the intention of disorienting the victim.  The term is based off the Broadway play and movies from the early 1940s.

Now, clearly what these gas station are doing isn’t on the same level as what Y&R’s Adam did to poor Ashley, and certainly some stores’ advertising is very clear and upfront, but some are not so obvious–as I found out the hard way.  So, the lesson to be learned when driving through the Fort Lauderdale region is that if the price of that gas sounds to good to be true, it likely is…at least if you don’t have cash to pay with.  Here’s hoping you’re not gaslit the next time you and your credit card roll into that too convenient gas station.

Tags: Adam, Ashley, Broadway, cash, credit card, Fort Lauderdale, gas, gas station, gaslight, gaslighting, gaslit, I-95, Sharon, Soap Opera Digest, South Florida, Sunshine State, Wikipedia, Y&R, Young and the Restless