Twos?

Decatur Daily Democrat | Sign slowed gasoline price rise to top $2
GRAND ISLAND, Neb. (AP) - Some customers may have thought it was simple justice. Alas, it was technology that prevented a gas station's sign from displaying any price $2 or higher.

Byron Wheeler, who owns a Byco gas station, said he kept prices below the $2 mark for five days last week because the station's electronic sign couldn't display a ''2'' in the dollar position.

Wheeler said the company is upgrading the sign, which has been in place at the station's convenience store since the business opened in 1991. But until the sign can be brought up to speed, Wheeler is displaying only the time and temperature.

And, those five days last week will be only a memory to customers.

''It brought customers in,'' Wheeler said. ''We had some fun with it.''

Now, I'd expect that kind of problem with signs that use physical numbers, not electronic displays.

Tennesseean | Gas station owners' dilemma: too few twos
It turns out that when regular gas prices top $2 a gallon, it can be a pain for station owners, too — sometimes there aren't enough twos to go around for their signs.

As average prices for regular unleaded topped the $2 mark in Nashville yesterday, there's been a growing demand for the number 2 from some convenience-store and gas-station owners, said Bobby Joslin of Joslin and Son Sign Co.

''The large numbers cost about $150 each, so stores don't keep a large inventory of them around,'' Joslin said yesterday.

''We did get a few calls for threes in California,'' [said Bobbie Shosty, marketing director of May Advertising in Fort Worth, Texas].