Chances are, you didn't see many small Kansas towns up-close-and-personal during your Labor Day weekend travels. Tom Palace is with the Petroleum Marketers and Convenience Store Association. He says that highway upgrades and changes in the way people travel are contributing to the decline of rural America.
Palace says the number of small town mom-and-pop gas stations are rapidly dwindling because of an economic double-whammy: higher gas prices mean people aren't traveling as much, and more of the people who ARE traveling aren't getting off the highway to detour through small towns.