Developments
CREDIT-CARD FEES PINCH GAS STATIONS
When gas station manager Roger Randolph realized it was costing him money each time someone filled up with $4-a-gallon gas, he hung a sign on his pumps: "No more credit cards."
Gas-station operators nationwide are reporting similar woes as higher prices translate into higher credit-card fees the managers must pay, squeezing profits at the pump.
"The more they buy, the more we lose," said Randolph, who manages Mr. Ed's Chevron in St. Albans, W. Va.
His complaints target the so-called interchange fee -- a percentage of the sale price paid to credit-card companies on every transaction. The percentage is fixed -- usually at just under 2 percent -- but the dollar amount of the fee rises with the price of the goods or services.
As gas tops $4 a gallon, that pushes fees toward 10 cents a gallon. Now stations, which typically mark up gasoline by 11 to 12 cents a gallon, are seeing profits shrink.
The way interchange fees are structured has long annoyed retailers. Legislation pending in the House and Senate would allow merchants to bargain collectively with major credit- and debit-card companies.
The credit-card companies say fees are just part of the cost of doing business.
FUEL COSTS DOCK CLIMATE RESEARCH
They haven't rechristened a ship the Irony, but federal researchers are canceling and cutting back on voyages aimed at studying climate change and ocean ecosystems so they can save money on boat fuel.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has scrapped at least four trips nationwide and is shortening others "because of the increase in petroleum prices," chief spokesman Anson Franklin said Wednesday.
In a June 10 e-mail to NOAA field offices and others, portions of which were obtained by the Associated Press, NOAA warned of an "approximate" $1.7 million budget shortfall because of fuel costs and noted the agency has proposed cutting 231 ocean research days for the year.
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