I've posted before about a shopper friend who was held up at gunpoint while shopping a route of gas stations along I-20 near Birmingham.
I've also posted about the shop I did in March where I found people mingling behind the store with drug paraphernalia lying around.
Now last night, a Circle K not too far from here, there was a shooting.

I tend to only do gas stations in the mornings or early afternoons....but after looking at crime stats, not just these, but overall...wonder if I need to reconsider.
Who needs it for so little payback?
I wonder what it is about gas stations that draws criminals? open 24 hours? having a cash drawer?
Have you ever been in a crime scene while shopping one?
I know some of you do late night gas shops? not concerned at all?
I know, I know crime can happen anywhere, anytime, but I tend to lower my risk.

I think it’s the transient nature of the location and target demographic of the retailer.

I won’t touch these for all the reasons you mentioned including the low rates.

Higher end vendors have less of that, but I don’t see assignments posted for them.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/20/2025 01:41PM by SBP.

I rarely do any gas station shops for this very reason. The only ones I consider are the Luvs travel plaza shops and I have picked up a few Thortons am/pm shops (am only). I am very picky and only consider in a safe location and bounsed (which is rare for both to occur).

On my way to EWR (Newark Airport) on Sunday, for a pre-security circuit of shops, I made a quick stop to do a car count in Newark. (commonly known as the armpit of NJ) It wasn't deep into Newark and I was familiar with the location and it was for only 15 minutes...right!!! I parked next to the air pump where there was a cement wall behind it. A few minutes later a woman, who looked a little bizarre herself, came running through the lot screaming, "Call 9-1-1." Yikes, what I didn't notice was the person out cold laying on top of the cement wall next to my car. I pictured EMS arriving and me being stuck in so I pulled up a bit, finished my time and got out of there fast. No police or EMS showed up while I was there. There is a reason I don't go to these places...I am reminding myself of that. Several of the Exxon stations I've done have been held up during daylight hours shortly after my visits. I feel like I just float through life skirting the issues I read about in the news the next day.

Bare,

I don't know why gas stations are targets for so much crime, but there are a few places that I won't go to in the evening. Most notably among them are gas stations in certain parts of Birmingham, on the West side. The streets are bad, very bad, pot holes that aren't even relocated, they just keep growing. The intersections are scary because even with signals and stop signs, no one obeys them, they just drive right through, there are no cops, they don't go there either. The gas stations have folks that could easily be described as bad guys standing around outside and sometimes inside too. The cashier windows have bullet proof glass (like bank teller windows in Los Angeles), and heavy metal grates on all of the doors and windows. The outsides of the gas stations are awful too.

All of the businesses in that area are similar, old barely maintained brick buildings that have been painted white over and over and over, with bars on the windows, and the only safe(ish) parking is directly in front of the door. All of the strip malls are abandonned except for one or two run down stores, also with bars on the doors and windows, and you can see why because all of the empty store fronts have their windows broken out of them. To the best of my recollection, there are no major chain grocery stores there, there are places in strip malls where there used to be grocery stores, but they all ran for their lives ages ago.

I rarely even use the freeway to go towards the MS state line from I-65. I generally go through the national forest on 278 and 69 to go around the long way and avoid the West side of Birmingham completely. Center Point is as far South and West as I'll go in and around Birminingham. From there I go North and East, or I get on the freeway to go further South and don't get off the freeway until I'm on the other side of Jefferson County.

There isn't much that scares me, I grew up and lived in gang territory in both the San Fernando Valley, and in the City, in Los Angeles. My best friends in high school and I used to go to Hollywood Blvd at night and walk up and down the street, we crossed the street when we got to The Golden Cup, Jeffrey (he's very tall, and has a striking resemblance to Tim Curry, even now at 65) was always afraid he was going to get kidnapped, or worse. Large portions of Birmingham scare me right to my core.

I stay out of the closest murder city altogether, day or night, and no longer do gas stations after dark, unless it's just to get a few lighting pics from my car. Remember when Maritz had the accounts and almost all of the brands had rotating day/dark requirements? I don't miss that. I'm an old lady now and, frankly, if I were a criminal at a gas station, I would definitely choose me as the perfect target for a robbery or carjacking.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/21/2025 04:17PM by sestrahelena.

In 2018, when I was just a teenager in the mystery shopping game, I was at a Marathon gas station in a big city. I had been there before, and the woman behind the counter knew me from the shopping I did. I was naive and shopped at night. It was my last one of the night, right off the interstate and not a good part of town. She told me we were about to be robbed. She then told me to act like we were arguing, and he would leave. We did and he left.

I was in Nashville in 2019, taking photos, when this man told me I was too close to his. I said something to the effect that your car was not in my photos, and he said back the *()& up and pulled a gun on me. I retired from gas stations on the spot. I am just now beginning to do them again.

I've been to gas stations everywhere including ones in the not so good areas. I've never had any major issues that I can recall. Just a bunch of perverts trying to talk but I just ignore them or say I'm not interested and they leave me alone. Most of the time they're just curious and just watches you. Maybe I've just haven't been to a really horrible one but I've been to the ones with the bullet proof windows and people standing outside like it's their job.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/21/2025 12:36PM by nikkinicky.

One time when I was route shopping, I was headed to a location where the clerk was killed. I visited another store before that and that's how I learned about what had happened. I've kept on shopping for this particular client, but I understand your concerns. Sometimes one has to put safety first.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/21/2025 02:31PM by larueda992.

Just a few weeks ago the owner of an Exxon I used to audit was shot and killed in broad daylight by the gas pumps. A man walked into the c-store to buy cigarettes. The man got upset that he was asked for his ID. Then, his payment was denied, so he just walked out with the cigarettes. The owner ran after him and tried to stop him as he drove off. The man stopped, got out of his vehicle, and shot him several times, killing him. This all went down around lunchtime.

I've not audited a gas station in a year as I phased out mystery shopping for the most part. If I still needed that money, then I would take the audit jobs, even the ones in "bad areas." The truth is that crime can happen anywhere. This particular gas station is clean, in the city, and along a main road with plenty of police nearby. There is a very nice Subway inside it. Evil people are everywhere. I have audited gas stations and had to help clerks watch shoplifters. I will say something if I see someone stealing because I believe people do this stuff because we sit idly by and let them. If we intervened and got as outraged over these type of things as much as some of us do by someone offering mystery shopping classes, imagine how better society would be.

Not worried. I go to all areas in So Cal....day or night.... Focused on LA County, Inland Empire, and Orange County. Although I have two teaching credentials and a real estate license, my first degree and credential was from the streets....probably the kind mentioned in the original post..... However, this Birmingham must be a real motha for ya if it scares MoreledZeplin to the "core." Oh Mo.... I think you meant to say the Gold Cup... not Golden.

Relatively new to doing gas station shops. Haven't had any bad incidents yet. Went to one station in a low-income area of a South Florida suburb which had a few dudes wandering around the parking lot. More depressing than dangerous. I'm not worried about safety issues, but I can totally understand why other people would be.

forgive me forum, it's been about 40 years since we did those things.. and it's only parts of Birmingham, most of it isn't any worse than downtown Los Angeles..

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/22/2025 08:06PM by Morledzep.

Lol. You actually had me search Google Street Maps looking for those areas.

Did many (over a thousand) Marathon jobs before they fired the old company. I would even do some in Detroit for the right price. I think I walked away from one or two all that time. Was not always pretty, but I got my pictures and got out. I miss doing those jobs with Mobi Audit. That was good app! I also felt I made a difference in some of the stations I did regularly. Some definitely cleaned up their act over the years.

I haven't had any bad experiences or run into any crime scenes. I'm sure I've just been lucky in that regard, I did do a station that was closed because someone did a smash and grab during the night, but that was in an upscale area. Honestly my worst experiences are in rural areas with tweakers thinking I'm spying on them or something.

In urban areas, one annoying thing is the number of time I get hit up by panhandlers. Almost all are harmless and give up after one try, so I don't really have a problem with them individually. It's just that I get hit up so many times I've had to make a rule of telling everyone no, even if I might normally give them something. I still help someone out on a rare occasion, but if I applied my normal standards I wouldn't make any money.

The Sunoco location I did last week or so, the one with boards covering up the front door due to a recent break in, they were just mentioned in the news again. Seems a major drug bust occurred in the parking lot this week.
Noted.
I wonder how much any one person's confidence or trepidation to do any of these shops based on location, could lie in their experience with different areas, or perhaps their gender, race, age, etc... When shopping, I tend to shy away from areas where I stick out like a sore thumb. Sometimes though I stumble onto them without knowledge beforehand. I need to work on that one.

@mystery2me wrote:

In urban areas, one annoying thing is the number of time I get hit up by panhandlers. Almost all are harmless and give up after one try, so I don't really have a problem with them individually. It's just that I get hit up so many times

THIS!! And not just at gas stations or while working. Everywhere! When I hear, "Excuse me?" Or, "How you doing?" Coming from a stranger, I get suddenly deaf and keep on walking. I have been particularly pissy on some days and just exploded with a fierce string of expletives (not working) but they are completely unfazed so I don’t even bother with that now.

Several months ago, or maybe about a year ago, someone here posted that they were locked inside the gas station convenience store during an audit/shop. The clerk behind the bulletproof glass was trying to prevent a thief from exiting the store with unpaid merchandise. Not sure if the shopper followed up with an attorney regarding false imprisionment. It must've been absolutely horrifying!

I'm old, short, fat and I've never been pretty by anyone's standards. No one hits on me, ever.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/23/2025 10:42PM by Morledzep.

@sestrahelena wrote:

@mystery2me wrote:

In urban areas, one annoying thing is the number of time I get hit up by panhandlers. Almost all are harmless and give up after one try, so I don't really have a problem with them individually. It's just that I get hit up so many times

THIS!! And not just at gas stations or while working. Everywhere! When I hear, "Excuse me?" Or, "How you doing?" Coming from a stranger, I get suddenly deaf and keep on walking. I have been particularly pissy on some days and just exploded with a fierce string of expletives (not working) but they are completely unfazed so I don’t even bother with that now.

When I've been approached by someone asking, I never give them money, only the free food that I have to buy for the inside shop requirement (crackers, peanuts, or similar). If someone asks for money for gas and I've not yet fueled up, I'll buy them the 2 gallons or $2, depending on the shop. Otherwise, I refuse and give them the shop food from a previous shop.
Never money.