Gas station coffee

This isn't a big deal really - well, it may be to others...
Periodically when I am on my way to work and haven't had a chance to brew my own coffee at home , I will stop at the local gas station for a cup of coffee. ( I'm out in the real boonies so we don't have the pleasure of a Heinie Brothers or a Starbucks.) The last few times I've visited at such a gas station the coffee has been horrible. Simply weak weak weak. You'd think coffee was an important draw to the store especially in the early morning. After all, they devote an entire island in the store to "FRESH COFFEE!" with all sorts of creamers, flavorings, espresso. When I mentioned the bad coffee to the woman at checkout she shot me a whithering look as if to say, "really? You think I care?"
It just seems that if you are going to invest such a large footprint in the store to a single item that it should be the best you could offer at the price point you are asking. Or is cra**y coffee the norm and I'm just horribly spoiled and out of touch with the market? I'm not expecting great coffee, just a decent cup of joe.

McDonald's has improved their coffee a lot in the past 10 years. If I am on a road trip or something, it definitely beats gas station coffee. Now that you mention this issue, it would make sense for a gas station chain to differentiate itself by being the one with decent coffee. Do none of them do that?

I would imagine that Circle K does procure decent coffee for the price point but you are more likely seeing poor execution on the part of employees or heavily used equipment not being maintained properly.

I think I found the problem!

[Robin Garr]

Why not invest in a Melitta or Aeropress or other simple single-cup coffee maker? You can make coffee at home in less time than it takes you to pull in and wait to be served at Circle K, and get better coffee too.

That makes sense and I do have a single cup coffee maker and it makes fantastic coffee . I also have a Starbucks almost next door to me but sometimes I have to be at work at 6 Am and really don't want to get up any earlier than I already have to given my 45 minute drive to work. and, as most people know that travel 71 north, getting anywhere on time is a crapshoot. I tend to want to get off 71 and to my work area first before I feel comfortable , time wise, stopping for coffee. (Given there were no holdups on 71.) Out that way there are only Circle Ks and maybe a Thorntons.

Gizmo or useful?

http://gajitz.com/espresso-express-in-car-coffee-maker-is-a-jolt-on-wheels/

Gizmo or useful?

http://gajitz.com/espresso-express-in-car-coffee-maker-is-a-jolt-on-wheels/

Certainly looks like a gizmo or should I say gimmick, certainly not something that I would try without hearing feedback from somebody else 1st.

Looks cool! But $170? Hmmmmm

The best "gas station coffee" I've ever had is at Quik Trip, an upper Midwest chain. At the very-very bottom of the list (and not a gas station...No, wait...on the other hand...maybe it is) is McDonald's....seriously, I'd rather eat dirt than to drink that stuff. Around here, Thorton's is hit and miss...depends on the shift, depends on the store.

But a decent cup of coffee for less than $2 isn't out of the question? Just maybe at the whim of over worked, under paid hourly employee? Is that the picture I'm seeing?

The gas station near Air Devils Inn and Bowman Field, that I still think of as SuperAmerica, but has been Speedway for awhile, has the best coffee for my buck, but I'm definitely no connoisseur, and don't even have a coffee maker. When I'm out and about, though, I find myself stopping in there just for the coffee.

My family and I typically plan to hit Nords and Sunergos (next door to one a other) on Sunday mornings before our church service and that combo is fantastic.

If we are running behind I'll swing through the thorntons here and have found that their "dark" is serviceable. My wife likes to add some French vanilla creamer and out of 5 stops there over the past few months there has only been 1 time the French vanilla dispenser was not empty. It always makes me wonder, as you asked, why have this huge dedicated coffee section and then leave major components unrefilled?