By Howard Koplowitz
Customers of the Texstar Service Station in Bellerose may get a good kind of sticker shock with the price at the pump indicating they will be charged only $30 to fill their tank. But that feeling dissipates quickly when they learn that price is based on a half gallon.
Gary Staiano, owner of the Texstar at 240-06 Braddock Ave., said he lets his customers know about the nostalgic pricing system before they pay.
“I tell them first it's half-pricing, I explain it to them and they understand,” he said. “All my regulars don't have a problem with it.”
Texstar is the only station in Queens allowed to price its gas at the pump by the half gallon because its equipment can only register gas prices as high as $3.99 a gallon.
While yellow tape affixed to the pumps alerts motorists that the gas is priced by the half gallon, the station signs that advertise prices are by the gallon in accordance with state law.
When a reporter filled his tank at the station Monday, an attendant told him that prices at the pump were double what the meter read.
