Thousands of 7-Eleven franchisees across the country asked customers to support their neighborhood stores by signing petitions calling for Congress to pass legislation that prohibits credit-card networks [image-nocss] and card-issuing banks from charging unfair transaction fees. The signature drive ran from June 22 through August 10 at store counters coast to coast.
"Consumer response to this grassroots petition drive exceeded expectations," said Joe DePinto, 7-Eleven president and CEO. "Customers share our frustration over the hidden fees that American retailers and, ultimately, consumers are forced to pay. They, too, want Congress to take action to regulate these unfair fees, which are the highest in the industrialized world."
Interchange fees are not transparent to the consumer and assessed to store owners every time a consumer uses a credit card. These charges result in higher prices which are borne by all consumers, whether or not they use a card or cash. In 2008 alone, these fees cost American businesses and their customers $48 billion. According to the National Association of Convenience Stores (NACS) 2008 State of the Industry data, on average, an American c-store owner paid 63% more in transaction fees than they earned in profits.
Credit-card companies typically levy more than $2 in fees for every $100 consumers charge at American businesses, said 7-Eleven. C-stores generally have smaller purchases that typically result in much higher rates, it added. For example, with the recently published rate hike by MasterCard, if a customer uses a MasterCard Pin Debit card to make a $1.00 purchase at a c-store the charge to the merchant would be 20 cents or 20% of the transaction. This will be nearly twice the current rate. Rules set by the card companies require that retailers accept cards for all transactions.
7-Eleven stores are not allowed to set a minimum sale amount for card use which would help them avoid these fees.
The retailer is bringing eight store operators to Washington, D.C., representing the various U.S. divisions where stores are located so they can present nearly 15,000 petition booklets to their congressional representative. They will also participate in a press conference on September 30 at the U.S. Capitol.
The store operators, their division, store locations (and the number of signatures collected) are as follows:
National: Navdeep Bassi, Costa Mesa, Calif. (5,726). Northeast: Harshal Patel, Philadelphia (4,989). Southwest: Matt Mattu, Los Angeles (4,293). Florida: Hitesh Patel, Titusville, Fla. (3,450). Central U.S. : Dayle Street, Murray, Utah (2,863). Pacific Northwest: Sumeet Bedi, Redmond, Wash. (2,477). Chesapeake area: Rene Ayo, Norfolk, Va. (1,625). Great Lakes: Jon Baloch, Westland, Mich. (1,027). Dallas-based 7-Eleven operates, franchises and licenses more than 6,850 stores in the United States and Canada.
[Pictured: Joe DePinto, president and CEO of 7-Eleven with some of the 14,000 petition pads containing 1.66 million signatures from 7-Eleven stores' customers calling for fair credit card interchange fee legislation. DePinto and eight 7-Eleven store operators who collected the most signatures are headed to Washington, D.C., September 30 to present the signed petitions to their congressional representatives. If stacked on top of each other, the petition booklets, each with room for 270 signatures, would measure 311 feet tall, 33 feet taller than the U.S. Capitol building.]
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