I didn't drive yet in the 1970s, but I do remember the long lines, alternating tag-number days to get a place in line, and people trying to cheat by switching plates on their cars. That's when the coil inserts became very popular -- a device you install in the gas tank to prevent siphon hoses from being used to steal your gas. It worked to a point, until the gas thieves started puncturing the tank underneath the vehicle and catching the fuel in buckets.
The ripple effect of large gas price increases happening almost daily was the cost of everything being transported via truck, plane or train started passing the cost onto consumers. This was long before UPC codes and computers told the cashier how much something cost. Nearly everything was priced using stuck-on labels. It became common to pick up a can of corn and find the price label covered 2, 3, 4, or more lower priced labels. Things that were delivered when gas was cheap were having its price jacked up to keep shoppers from digging to the back of the shelves to find items that were marked with prices before the increases. It also meant more cash coming in to cover their costs of having to pay some employees more to keep up with inflation. If they didn't, the employee couldn't afford to keep working there.
Everything was spiraling into an abyss thanks to inflation driven by our dependence on foreign oil.