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This story appears in the August 2009 issue of Cards&Payments.
In late June, convenience-store chain 7-Eleven Inc. began collecting customer signatures on petitions in each of its more than 6,000 U.S. stores calling for Congress to regulate interchange.
"Ask Congress to stop credit card companies from charging unfair transaction fees to the businesses you shop," say displays at checkouts of 7-Eleven stores. Below the displays are signature books bound with covers showing a man in a hardhat, a boy with a giant Slurpee and a couple of apparent employees below the caption, "We're not just your 7-Eleven. We're neighbors hurt by unfair credit card fees."
By early July, the chain claimed to have collected 1 million signatures.
Keith Jones, the Dallas-based company's director of government affairs, says consumer response to the campaign, scheduled to end Aug. 10, has been "absolutely remarkable."
The petition books at checkout counters each hold 270 signatures, and many stores had requested additional copies shortly after the campaign began, according to Jones. "We started off with about 9,500 signature books and then we ordered another 5,000," he says.
One or two out of every 10 visitors to Dennis Lane's 7-Eleven franchise in Quincy, Mass., signs the petition after reading it, says Lane, who also is chairman of the National Coalition of Associations of 7-Eleven Franchisees, noting many customers who used to stop by every day for coffee now stop in less frequently because they have been laid off.
"Consumers are more concerned than ever about where their pockets are being picked," Lane says.
Card networks and issuers called the campaign misleading.
"Consumers signing 7-Eleven's anti-interchange petition should first ask themselves 'What's in it for me?' Experience shows that the answer would be higher fees and fewer benefits on their credit cards," a MasterCard Worldwide spokesperson said by e-mail.
Merchants may not pass along to customers any savings that result from lower card-acceptance costs, the MasterCard spokeswoman said. "7-Eleven is misleading its customers into thinking that a reduction in the store's cost of acceptance would lead to lower pricing," she wrote.
For example, restrictions that Australia has imposed on interchange rates have led to more annual fees to cardholders and a 23% reduction in rewards such as airline miles, according to MasterCard. "However, there is no evidence that merchants lowered any prices on products or services to reflect their lower acceptance costs," the spokesperson said.
In a statement, Visa Inc. says 7-Eleven "is asking consumers to sign a petition that would ultimately shift 7-Eleven's costs of doing business onto consumers while 7-Eleven enjoys all the benefits of accepting electronic payments."
Lane says the competitive nature of retailing generally forces merchants to pass along savings in operating costs to consumers. For example, he is now charging $2.39 for a gallon of 1% milk, versus $2.99 a year ago, largely because of lower prices from his suppliers. "Any responsible retailer would reflect the change in their retail prices up or down," Lane adds.
