If oil change places start to disappear the cost for an oil change is going to go way up. Just about any shop will give you an oil change today, see how much more expensive they'll charge for their master certified mechanic to change your oil versus the barely trained fresh out of highschool grad that still needs to always stop and say "lefty loosey..." every time they pick up a wrench.
I don't follow. You think there won't be barely-trained people working in auto shops? The people who put put on tires and do alignments would be pretty similar to the people who do oil changes. They'll just do oil changes in addition to putting on tires.
Yeah, and go to a shop like that and see their prices compared to the places that only do oil changes. They're usually twice the labor price compared to low cost oil change places in my experience.
Even just putting the car on the lift and jacking it up is already more work, requires more training, and has more risk than having someone in the pit at a fast oil change place.
A pit is more risk than a lift. Both have their dangers, but a lift is easy to inspect and tends to have redundant safeties so that it doesn't fail and kill people. A pit by contrast can fill with deadly gas (from the exhaust of the car) that you can't tell are there until someone passes out.
