Hold the sugar

The way you buy (and measure, and conceive of) fuel is not the way everyone else does.

This gas station has a seperate areas for refuleing motorcycles, reflecting the spatial inefficiency that would result from riders queueing up by the pumps to refuel, as well as motorcycles' relatively small tanks and the corollary effort of the attendant having to move the refuleller from one motorcycle to another in rapid succession. 

Perhaps also the risk of a high concentration of queued people standing next to a gas pump, and smoking as a popular way of passing time. The risks of waiting behaviors.

Fuel, trust

This informal roadside fuel station's funnel has been fitted with an aftermarket metal handle and metal mesh filter. That a filter was fit into the funnel reflects the relative faith in the quality of the locally available fuel. Located alongside one of the few semi-paved roads that thread through this rural area in northern Myanmar, the majority of customers are in the midst of a journey and would naturally be suspicious of the quality of fuel sold at an informal roadside stand such as this. Was this filtering practice adopted preemptively by the stall owner in anticipation of this suspicion, or modified following claims of dubious-quality fuel as a means of assuring customers of fuel quality? Consider how trust is affected by the filter, with the affirmation of potentially dirty fuel accompanied by an expression of concern for the customer's vehicle by the use of a filter during the refueling process.

Charcoal vendor

This charcoal vendor sources his charcoal from a larger broker who works out of a nearby downtown market. Although he needn't pay any "tea money" for the right to sell on the street, the larger broker he sources from must pay, as technically it is illegal to source charcoal imported from the nearby area that supplies the broker. At this point, he had only been selling on this corner for one month, and was uncertain whether he would have to pay any fees in the future. Although his displayed inventory appears small, he has more stashed in a safe place nearby as part of a strategy to minimize his risk and maintain the appearance of a small size. He does this in order to insure that he stays "under the radar" and continues to escape paying any "tea money". 

At night, his small table is lit by the fluorescent glow of the nearby illuminated signboard for an expensive/high-class restaurant located on the street. His customer base consists primarily of some of the local households that still use charcoal to prepare their meals, as well as several sidewalk-based restaurants on the adjacent street whose owners do not live nearby and do not wish to shoulder the extra burden of carrying charcoal on their journey from their home (or storage site) to their store site. The bags pictured here sell for 500 kyat (~US $.60), one of which can supply a household for up to four days worth of meals on their charcoal stove.

With the small stick of incense stuck into the corner of the table, one is reminded of the importance of acknowledging there are other forces at work determining the success of your enterprise in this context. Could anything be taken away from this business and have it remain recognizable as a business? Is it recognizable as a business to you now? If not - what would it need for you to consider it so?

For stoves and cars

There are certain inferences we could make about the neighborhood surrounding this gas station in suburban Seville, Spain. Such inferences might include the types of fuel predominately used to heat local homes, the availability of said fuels, and changes in ability/willingness of homeowners with stove-heated homes to personally go out and collect fuel vs. drive to purchase  pre-collected fuel. The gap in knowledge of an old home's new owner as to source of fuelwood could also contribute, as could the increasing scarcity of local fuelwood.

Is this gas station's decision to stock firewood forward-looking or backward-looking? Is this a lag indicative of an economic recession, with a shortage in money leading to residents heating their homes using wood (assuming it is more affordable than their previous means of heating)? If so, savings must be considerable, as one uses up a not-insignificant amount of time and money driving oneself to the gas station (if the trip is solely to pick up firewood, that is). 

The gas station's evolving role as a hub for all manner of fuels, and assumptions about share of local, repeat customers versus journeying, drive-by customers.

Refueling after dark

The standard method informal roadside fuel vendors advertise their services is to display containers filled with water adjacent to their stall. Fuel is sold by the liter in Myanmar, and if one is refueling their motorbike the means of transferring the fuel from a larger jerrycan to the motorbike is often a repurposed one liter water bottle (often poured through a funnel).

Many stalls are only open during daylight hours, or if they are open after dark their usual local customers know this in advance and there is no need to advertise that fact and draw more attention to the quasi-legal. On streets or highways that still experience a high level of vehicle traffic well into the night, however, informal fuel vendors such as these in Mandalay advertise their services by illuminating their typical "daytime display."

To grab additional attention, some vendors have branched out to use non-conventional containers. When considering the design of containers/packages for goods in resource-constrained environs, combining a distinctive packaging (using green plastic when everyone else uses clear) with simple reusability (one-liter bottles are everywhere, and repurposed for a multitude of uses) means your unique container (and by extension your brand) will be spread far and wide.