Comment by somenameforme

Full service gas stations are the standard in the vast majority of the world. It's also way faster and more pleasant. Same thing at e.g. retail outlets where you'll walk into and have your own little personal army of helpers. I think the major difference is in relative cost of living and labor costs.

Low end labor costs tend to track cost of living costs. In high cost-of-living places, you have high labor costs and vice versa. Most places are much cheaper than America, which means you can afford to hire more people to do tasks that would otherwise be uneconomical.