Old-Style Pumps Balk At $4-a-Gallon Gas, Too

Robert Bailey, program manager for Virginia's Office of Product and Industry Standards, said that it's a matter of consumer protection. "I think any savvy business owner would have recognized early in the year that gas prices are rising, and there are companies that provide services to renovate or replace analog pumps with digital ones," he said.

At least one company is working on a conversion kit that will allow the pumps to go above $3.99. But orders are backlogged for months.

That's why some pump owners have given in and shelled out the money for a digital upgrade.

"You're either gonna sell gas, or you're not," said Greg Fauver, owner of Gore Grocery. He spent several thousand dollars to install computerized displays on the six pumps outside his small market north of Winchester. He figures he spends more on electricity for the pumps than on the gas they dispense, but, he said, "They're a draw for the store."

For the companies that sell, service and install gas station equipment, it has been difficult to keep up with demand.

"Some of these mechanical pumps have been unchanged since the late 1940s and early 1950s," said Luke Neff, sales manager for Service Station Repair in Winchester. "I just don't think when they were built that anybody fathomed the price of fuel being what it is today." Neff said his company sells a basic replacement pump for $3,000 to $4,000, plus installation. That doesn't include upgrades that might be needed.

"It's unfortunate that a lot of mom-and-pops are getting squeezed out," he said. "But they're not doing enough volume to afford to upgrade their equipment."

Those who frequent Osborne's store said Orlean would be losing more than a business if she goes under. The town is a mix of blue collar and blue blood, where several wealthy residents have estates and country homes and the oldest farmers remember the days when they harvested hay with horses and sickles.

Orlean has a firehouse, a post office and a flower shop, but Osborne's market is the only regular meeting place in town, selling everything from imported beer and the New York Times to night crawlers and "Guttin' Gloves" for deer hunters. There are goose eggs at the deli counter, ice cream cones for the kids and snapshots tacked to the wall showing smiling locals with slain black bears and trophy bucks.

"We'd be in bad shape if we didn't have that market," said Doug Scott, a retired builder who moved to town five years ago. Like a lot of locals, Scott goes to the market every day -- even if he's not shopping. "You walk in there," he said, "and there'll be a Washington lawyer next to a farmer who's deaf from working next to machines all his life."

"Out here," he said, "the only way to see people is passing them on the road or at the market. There's an isolating element to living in the country that the market overcomes."

At least Osborne has a new venture -- a recently opened all-you-can-eat seafood restaurant -- if the pumps go dry.

"I've got a passion for people and cooking, so I love what I'm doing," she said. "But I don't know what these people would do if they didn't have this store."