The big bosses from the oil company did their very best to talk me out of taking the lease on the gas station. The position wasnāt the very best although there was a great deal of passing traffic but I had this dream that I could make a success of the venture.
The big bosses continued to tell me about the pitfalls of the station and even talked of closing the premises down completely as there hadnāt been a great deal of success with a number of lessees over quite a few years.
I still stuck to my guns and literally begged them to let me have the station. Eventually it was agreed that I could lease the station for a period of 12 months just to see if I really could make a success of it. Naturally I asked for the right to renew the lease after the 12 months if I wanted to.
At last it was all agreed. I was the proud owner of a gas station and I would take over the lease in three weeks time. Although I knew my wife Melanie backed me 100%, I am sure she had some doubts about the viability of the station.
The next three weeks were spent looking thoroughly, but secretly, at the operation of four other stations, each less than a block away from mine, and to see just how well they were doing. I was rather pleased to see they seemed to be having some problems although the number of customers buying their fuels was much greater than those patronizing my station. Many of the customers using the other stations were obviously from the local businesses nearby and it would be important to collect some of their accounts.
I discussed plans for the station with my darling wife and although she was a little reticent about some of my ideas, she gave in and said she was sure it would work.
My first step was to approach a local talent scout to see if I could hire some really beautiful young girls to serve the customers their gas. I stipulated the girls should be prepared to wear very revealing costumes and be prepared to let the customers at least see their breasts whilst the tanks are being filled and windshields being cleaned.
The talent scout had no problem in finding the right kind of girls for me and he invited me to attend a lineup of the talent at his office a few days before I was due to open the station.
The girls were absolutely beautiful and each had a figure to die for! They were each scantily clad and when each of them, in turn, bent over as if filling a gas tank, their breasts became completely visible. This was just what I wanted.
I selected two of these gorgeous girls and asked my talent scout friend to sign them up for a couple of weeks trial. It was then that he told me how much it would cost to have just one of the girls working for me for a week and I suddenly realized it was way beyond my means. I had no idea it would be so expensive to hire the girls.
This immediately put paid to my first idea to attract the customers! It had been a wonderful idea but the cost was totally prohibitive and would have cost much more that the profit I was likely to get from a whole months takings!
Feeling very depressed I went home to tell Melanie the bad news. She had thought the idea was very sound but realized too just how expensive it would be. The other stations were either self-service stations or used young lads to fill tanks. These lads were not the least bit interested in their jobs and werenāt at all careful with the customerās cars. What to do now. I guess the only thing I could do was to serve the customers myself and simply blind them with service and hope they would come back again. This, of course, would not attract new customers as I needed a real attractive gimmick to entice them from the other stations.
We didnāt sleep very well that night ā we both realized we had probably bitten off more than we could chew and it might have been a big mistake. It was a long night.
Next morning at breakfast when my depression had hit an all time low, Melanie suddenly jumped up and hugged me, kissed me and said āI know how to make this work, darling ā I will be the star attraction at the station. I will fill the tanks and make all the customers want to come to our station!ā
I didnāt know what to say. I instantly realized I hadnāt thought of Melanie as I didnāt want men to be ogling her body all day long, but without any other solution there didnāt seem much else I could do. I told Melanie it was probably worth a try but how did she feel about all the men who would be looking at her body ā her breasts in particular ā and could she really do it? Melanie has always been a rather conservative lassie and was never one to expose her body to anyone but me.
At last it was agreed. Melanie would work for the first week to give the idea a fair try and it was also agreed that if, for any reason, Melanie didnāt feel comfortable at any time, we would immediately discontinue the practice and simply rely on my ability to help the customers.