I go to a petrol station near my neighbourhood. As a petrol consumer, I can be segmented into what you call “
a brand loyalist.” The loyalist that fills up only with the preferred brand and unless it is an emergency would never go to another brand. And I always go to the one near my home.
The owner of this petrol kiosk somehow feels that every pump must have a “red” which is the most expensive variant in its repertoire. Of all the variants, the yellow a (RON 95) is the cheapest, and then the green (RON 97), then red. If you use the 80:20 rule, you can almost predict that 80% of the drivers will buy into the yellow and the remaining 20% split between the green and red.
Now, why would a petrol kiosk inconvenience its consumers by choosing to have a red at every pump thus limiting the number of yellow and green pumps? So you have 50% red and the remaining 50% split between the yellow and the green at all available pumps. Now, you have 80% of your customers coming into your kiosk that has less than the ratio expected for
convenience.
Initially, I thought perhaps that’s how the company has dictated the retailers do. But casual observation of other stations shows that they are almost always just yellow and green. So, now I go to the other two which are just as accessible. At least I won’t be inconvenienced to wait for my turn and wait for the correct side of the pump to fill up.