§ 779.255 Meaning of “gasoline service establishment.”

(a) A gasoline service station or establishment is one which is typically a physically separate place of business engaged primarily (“primarily” meaning 50 percent or more) in selling gasoline and lubricating oils to the general public at the station or establishment. It may also sell other merchandise or perform minor repair work as an incidental part of the business. (See S. Rept. 145, 87th Cong., first session, p. 32.) No difference in application of the terms “gasoline service establishment” and “gasoline service station” was intended by Congress (see Senate Report cited above) and both carry the same meaning.

(b) Under section 3(s)(5) of the prior Act and until February 1, 1969, under section 3(s)(1) of the amended Act, the covered enterprise is always a single establishment—a gasoline service establishment, even though such establishment may be a part of some larger enterprise for purposes of other provisions of the “enterprise” coverage of the new amendments. As noted above this term refers to what is commonly known as a gasoline service station, a separate “establishment.” What constitutes a separate establishment is discussed in §§ 779.303 through 779.306. While receipts from incidental sales and services are included and counted in determining the establishment's annual gross volume of sales for purposes of enterprise coverage, the establishment's primary source of receipts must be from the sale of gasoline and lubricating oils. (See Senate Report cited above.) An establishment which derives the greater part of its income from the sales of goods other than gasoline or lubricating oils will not be considered a “gasoline service establishment.” The mere fact that an establishment has a gasoline pump as an incidental part of other business activities in which it is principally engaged does not constitute it “a gasoline service establishment” within the meaning and for the purposes of these sections.