The decision, made last week, will mean as of July 10 customers will only be able to fill up by swiping PIN secured credit or debit cards through slots at the bowsers. The shop and toilets will close, and ice and gas will no longer be available. A notice on the door outlines the changes.

“It’s a real shame, because a lot of people come here for the service - it’s why I started coming here as a customer, and then because I’d done some console work, got a job,” Mr Campbell, from Red Range, said.

“At least I’ve got another job, but a couple of the fellows don’t have anything else, so I don’t know what they’ll do,” he said.

Lowes Retail Manager Wayne Pettit said the decision has come about due to larger Service Station chains opening in towns like Glen Innes and holding a monopoly over the market.

“It’s a hard industry to be in,” he said. “Corporate businesses like Woolworths are taking away our margin. We can’t survive when they are going into towns. Caltex already has three sites in town (counting the site for Woolworths Fuel, which is a co-branded Caltex); they are controlling the market and putting small businesses out.”

Mr Pettit said that the change over to card only service stations in happening Australia wide as the independent service stations are being forced out by the supermarket chains.

However Mr Pettit did express sadness at having to let go of the six employees.

“It’s a sad occasion to put people off everybody has families its hard,” Mr Pettit said. “We just can’t maintain the business and be profitable. We had to make a decision. All the guys are well liked and they have all understood why it has to happen.”

Jim Taylor of ‘Millencourt’ Pinkett, who said he’d been a cash customer at the servo for 15 years, had mixed feelings.

“It’s a real shame about the jobs, but that’s the way the world is going. At most service stations in America, you’ve either got to swipe your card at the bowser, or go in and pay up front,” he said.

“What worries me more is oil going to $200 a barrel - I really don’t know how regional NSW is going to handle that one, with the way it will hit the cost of living,” Mr Taylor said.