Sal Risalvato, executive director of the New Jersey Gasoline, C-Store and Automotive Association, a trade group, said he believed allowing self-service gasoline would lower overhead costs, increase sales and drive down prices.

Not all retail stations adjusted prices after wholesale gasoline prices dropped, said Sal Risalvato, executive director of New Jersey's Gasoline, C-Store, and Automotive Association.

Straubel even showed off what’s been described as “an aerial depiction of a recharge center that included what looked exactly like a c-store.”

Hoping to delve further into the restaurant-versus–convenience stores question, I visited the website of Convenience Store News, which had a piece about how some stores are so keen on the prepared-food segment that they’re opening new locations sans fuel pumps—a daring move in the c-store trade.

Only a handful of the almost 1,000 independent stations in New Jersey have installed charging stations, said Sal Risalvato, executive director of the New Jersey Gasoline, C-Store and Automotive Association.