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February 1, 2013 Here is what you will find in this edition:
JOIN NJGCA ON FACEBOOK -- CLICK HERE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR'S MESSAGE: GREETINGS & SAL-UTATIONS!
BELOW COST SELLING OUTBREAK,
CREDIT CARD SURCHARGES, MINIMUM WAGE INCREASES, AND MORE... By now I think you all know how rabid I am in my opposition to Below Cost Selling. I’ve fought countless battles with the Legislature to make sure that below cost selling remains illegal in this state, and I regularly turn in to the authorities stations that I believe are selling below cost (even when they’re members). Not only are they in violation of the law, but they’re giving themselves an unfair advantage over those members who are doing the right thing. Normally these complaints come in every so often, and I pass them along to the appropriate people in the Department of Weights & Measures. But in the last week or so there’s practically be an epidemic of complaints that I’ve had to deal with. As fast I can report them, more come in. Now, I don’t know why anyone would choose to sell their main product at a loss. Heck, I don’t know why anyone wouldn’t want to add at least 20 cents profit! Yea they sell more when they sell below cost, but that only means they’re flushing more money down the toilet. Especially when you consider the extra labor costs that comes from having to meet that demand. Many of these complaints seem to be centered on one specific company. I can only think that the reason they’re doing this is to try and wipe out the nearby competition so that once they’re gone they can have a monopoly in the area. I have called together a meeting with a variety of key people to discuss what actions NJGCA can take or even lead in order to curb these abuses. In order to stop this and protect your business, I need your help. If the competition has started selling at unusually low prices, you must record the date, time, and price they are selling at and (ideally) take a picture of their street sign. Email this info to me at Sal@njgca.org with the exact address of the station. I need the EXACT address of the station, including the street name and number. I can’t go to a government official and just say it’s the unbranded station in some town, or the station that’s off some highway somewhere, I need specifics. At the top of the agenda for this week is something you may have heard about on the news: credit card surcharges. I have had several members call me this week to ask about the changes to credit card policies that just went into effect on Sunday. The changes come as a result of a $7.25 billion dollar settlement of a 2005 lawsuit between Visa & Mastercard against millions of merchants who accused the credit card companies of fixing processing fees. The settlement allows retailers the OPTION of adding on a surcharge to customer transactions equal to the processing fees being charged the retailer. Up until now, it was against Visa and Mastercard policy to have this surcharge. There are several rules a retailer would have to follow if they wanted to institute this surcharge. Debit and prepaid cards are exempt from the surcharge. Retailers are required to have a sign on their door saying they charge extra for credit purchases, they must tell the customer at the register that they will be charged extra for a credit purchase, and the receipt must include the cost of the surcharge. Stores also must give Visa and Mastercard 30 days notice before they implement these regulations. My advice on whether or not to implement this surcharge? DON’T. Now believe me I know how ridiculous credit card fees can be. There are over 300 different interchange fees depending on which card is used, how its charged (more security on your end=lower fees), what the associated rewards are, etc. When I first came here, I had NJGCA become a part of the Merchants Payment Coalition to fight for congressional legislation and find other ways to bring down fees. The cost of credit card fees for a station selling 100,000 gallons a month can range between 3 and 5 thousand dollars! There are a variety of reasons to skip out on the surcharges. The main one is that the option might not be around for long. When I first started thinking about this issue on Monday, I planned to write saying; as soon as a small business started charging this surcharge, there would be a race among the Trenton politicians (especially in an election year) to be the first to introduce a bill outlawing the practice. Well I was wrong—they didn’t even wait that long! That day S-2533/A-3758 was introduced in the Legislature with 9 members sponsoring it. And this isn’t one of those bills that just gets introduced and forgotten about; it already has been scheduled for a Committee hearing on Monday despite being so new that the text of the bill is not yet available. There are already 10 states which ban the credit card surcharges, including New York and Connecticut. There’s also the fact that this settlement itself may not last long. Most retail groups, including NJGCA, oppose this settlement because it does nothing to fix the problem of high credit card processing fees. This settlement is only preliminary and the court has yet to issue its final ruling in the case, so there may be significant modifications to these rules. Finally, there’s the fact that this rule change allowing surcharges only applies to Visa and Mastercard, not to American Express. And since the agreements you have with Visa and Mastercard say that you can’t discriminate and put the surcharge on one brand of credit card and not others, and since the agreement with American Express says you are still not allowed to institute surcharges; this means that if you accept AmEx, you essentially don’t even have the option to add the surcharge. Although given the insane processing charges AmEx has, I don’t think you should be accepting them anyway. I continue to advise you though to implement cash-credit pricing and give a discount to those customers that pay with cash. This has long been allowed, as you know, and will certainly continue to be. The last Trenton-specific thing I wanted to mention is the latest skirmish in the battle over a minimum wage increase. On Monday Governor Christie officially issued a conditional veto of the Legislature’s plan to raise the minimum wage by 17% and then create automatic increases every year going forward. The Governor’s compromise plan would raise the minimum wage gradually, over three years. Most importantly, it would not include the provision calling for automatic increases. While this plan isn’t ideal (ideally the minimum wage wouldn’t rise at all) it is a reasonable compromise between businesses and low income workers, and I hope the Legislature will ratify it. Unfortunately it doesn’t look like they will. The Democratic Leadership has said they want to move forward with a plan that would completely circumvent the Governor and put a minimum wage increase directly on the November ballot as a constitutional amendment. This is a terrible idea, not just because of all the problems I’ve discussed with minimum wage increases, but because it’s a terrible idea to start playing around with our state’s constitution like this. The constitution should just lay out fundamental principles of our government, not be a wish list of partisan ideas. You can read the full press release NJGCA issued on the subject by CLICKING HERE. Any gasoline retailer reading this knows that you must periodically renew your Motor Fuel License with the state. Typically you complete the application, cut a check, and send it all down to Trenton. Recently one member experienced an issue with this and his application was held up for a “tax delinquency” for the last quarter of 2012. His application immediately set off a number of bells and whistles, and before he knew it, the NJ Department of Taxation was contacting him. In the end, it was a huge mistake and it was ultimately resolved, but not without some swearing, a string of phone calls, and a lot of stress. All Motor Fuel Licenses will now renew on June 1, 2013. However, the renewal application is no longer sent to existing applicants, but must now be filled out online. You can view the online MFA-1 application on the state’s website by CLICKING HERE If for some reason you are unable to open the link or are having an issue completing the form, please be sure to contact us at 973-376-0066 for assistance. Finally, I’d like to inform you that NJGCA will be offering Members and Non-Members the opportunity to take two instructional classes. The first is an 8-day Emission Technician Education Program (ETEP) Course and the second is the 1-day NJ PIF/DEIC Inspector Training Class. Full details on both classes are below and I hope that you will take advantage of either to better serve your customers.
Thanks for reading – See you next week!
Regards,
BUSINESS FOR SALE! If you'd like to list your business for sale, publish a location you're selling, or are seeking a business partner for your establishment, please contact NJGCA at 973-376-0066!
CLASSIFIEDS: FOR SALE & HELP WANTED! After running an ad in the Road Warrior over the last month, NJGCA was able to assist a member in selling his equipment! If you'd like to list equipment for sale, or have an open position you'd like to make other industry professionals aware of, please contact NJGCA at 973-376-0066 and let us help you get the word out!
NEWS AROUND THE STATE: THE NEWS YOU SHOULD KNOW
01/31/2013:
Groups call for expansion of Paid Family Leave program Five years after the passage and implementation of New Jersey’s Paid Family Leave program, advocates of the law are calling on state officials to expand the provision through a wage hike. What’s more, a number of legislators are now seeking to compel employers and insurers to inform workers of their rights to take paid family leave time under the law. 01/28/2013: Record: Governor signs the least number of bills into law in 168 years Making history in an unusual way, Governor Christie hit a milestone in the last Legislative Session when he signed only 80 bills into law -- the lowest number of bills made into law in nearly 170 years. Small government advocates have hailed the move as a sign that Trenton is meddling less in their lives and offering a tangible check against a bill-happy Legislature. Critics, on the other hand, state that the news is a sign of broken communication between the Governor and the Legislature. Click on the article above to read more. 01/28/2013: Is a move to privatize the lottery quietly coming? Though the topic of lottery privatization continues to be debated in Trenton and the court of public opinion, recent news indicates that the Christie Administration may be quietly making plans to privatize the lottery. To read the full report, click on the link above. If the needs of small business owners aren’t considered, will privatizing the lottery harm your convenience store or service station? 01/23/2013: Survey: More motorists trust independent repair shops over car dealerships As motorists are keeping their vehicles longer, a new survey conducted by AutoMD.com has shown that consumers place more trust in independent repair establishments than their car dealership counterparts by a 2 to 1 margin. Among the reasons cited were pricing and close relationships with their mechanics. Survey results reported that 80% of respondents felt they were overcharged at their dealership, while 87% stating that independent shop quotes were more affordable than dealership quotes.
TRAINING CLASSES!!
1.) EMISSION TECHNICIAN EDUCATION PROGRAM (ETEP) COURSE PLEASE NOTE: FUTURE DATES WILL BE ADDED UPON REQUEST AND ACCORDING TO DEMAND. CONTACT DEBBIE at 973-376-0066 or DEBBIE@NJGCA.ORG TO LET HER KNOW YOU ARE INTERESTED IN TAKING A SPECIFIC CLASS. THIS WILL ALLOW US TO GAUGE YOUR NEEDS AND KEEP TRACK OF THOSE WISHING TO PARTICIPATE!!
MEMBER BENEFIT PARTNER MESSAGE
TMP Energy Solutions We have had a number of NJGCA members successfully reduce their rate per kWh signing up through our energy saving program. We know it’s difficult to collect 12 months worth of previous electric bills to get an “accurate” analysis when comparing a variable rate to a fixed rate, but we now have another option available. This new solution is a power purchase option; the other program is still in full force and has saved members thousands of dollars. If you sign up for the power purchase option, you will be grouped with other NJGCA members until the minimum KW demand is acquired. By pooling the member’s usage together, you will be able to take advantage, as large energy users do, and receive a lower kWh rate. Each member will receive their own contract. Each member is responsible to sign and return the agreement the day it is received in order to secure the price for their group. Please do your due diligence, so when you receive the proposal and the agreement you will be able to make an intelligent decision. If by chance, you still want us to assess you bills, to give you a price to compare, we will require12 months of your most recent utility bills. There are no bills required, but we would still like to have one bill per meter on file to check account #’s, meter #’s service addresses and other pertinent information incase there is a problem. The term of the agreement is for 12 months. During this term period, you will have price protection against any energy price increases along with a low fixed kWh rate. If you are interested in becoming part of this power purchase option, please contact Greg Cannon at the NJGCA. Remember when you sign up your energy through the NJGCA Energy Program, TMP makes a considerable donation to the NJGCA Scholarship Fund through their proceeds. This has no affect on your rate, and costs you nothing out of pocket. We hope to help hundreds of NJGCA members reduce their utility costs by participating in this and our other cost reduction programs. Our purpose, in the endeavor, is to help NJGCA members lower their energy costs while supporting the NJGCA Scholarship Fund.
Contact GREG CANNON at 973-376-0066 or email Greg at greg@njgca.org. Mention that you are interested in saving money on your energy bills. NJGCA & TMP Energy Solutions will handle all the rest.
POLITICAL PARTICIPATON: THE NJGCA PAC
Promoting our agenda in Trenton is of utmost importance to NJGCA and our members.
To truly understand the importance of supporting our allies, consider our successes in Trenton:
We defeated BELOW COST SELLING We made history in getting FIRST RIGHT OF REFUSAL signed into law! We have built large support for RIGHT TO REPAIR and got it passed out of the Assembly We defended your small business against the false accusations of Attorney General Anne Milgram We gained wide support to move New Jersey to an all PIF Inspection System and close the CIF lanes ...and MUCH MORE!! In each instance, we achieved these goals with the help of our friends in the Legislature! If every member contributes just $100.00 we will be able to provide the help necessary to ensure victory for our allies.
PLEASE SEND YOUR CONTRIBUTIONS TO: I understand that times are tough for all NJGCA members, but this is just as important as any battle we have fought in the past. We have made great progress in Trenton. I hope that you will answer the call.
THE MEMBER TOOL BOX
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