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June 30, 2009
May 29, 2009
May 19, 2009
April retail sales show few signs of economic rebound
April retail sales show people continuing to cut back on their discretionary spending. According to the National Retail Federation, retail industry sales for April (which exclude automobiles, gas stations, and restaurants) decreased 0.4 percent seasonally adjusted from March and dropped 1.7 percent unadjusted over last year.
April retail sales released last week by the U.S. Commerce Department show total retail sales (which include non-general merchandise categories such as autos, gasoline stations and restaurants) decreased 0.4 percent seasonally adjusted over March and decreased 9.4 percent unadjusted year-over-year.
“A depressed labor market and lack of consumer confidence continues to play a role in what people buy and how much they spend,” said Rosalind Wells, chief economist for NRF. “Noticeable changes in consumer spending will take some time as the economy continues to rebuild itself through the rest of the year.”
-- Sarah
May 14, 2009
May 12, 2009
April 27, 2009
Debate continues over high credit card interchange fees
Let’s get the obvious questions out of the way: What the heck is an interchange fee and why should you care?
Here’s a good somewhat-simplified explanation from Wikipedia:
Interchange fee is a term used in the payment card industry to describe a fee that a merchant’s bank (the “acquiring bank”) pays a customer’s bank (the “issuing bank”) when merchants accept cards using card networks such as Visa and MasterCard for purchases. In a credit card transaction, the card-issuing bank in a payment transaction deducts the interchange fee from the amount it pays the acquiring bank that handles a credit or debit card transaction for a merchant. The acquiring bank then pays the merchant the amount of the transaction minus both the interchange fee and an additional, smaller fee for the acquiring bank.
The moral of the story? It’s money coming out of a retailer’s pocket—approximately 2 percent of each and every transaction’s value. High interchange and other card-processing fees are the reason why my favorite Thai restaurant won’t accept cards for purchases less than $10. The costs of processing the transaction completely erode their profit margin.
I’ve been following the debate swirling around interchange fees for some time now. Here’s a column I wrote about it back in September 2007. But things haven’t quieted down since then. In fact, I’d say the furor has become even more intense.
Check out this story from WOWK, a CBS affiliate in West Virginia. It prompted a small-business owner to leave a comment that most retailers can relate to…
I work in an office of a local drive-train rebuild shop. When we accept a credit card they take 2 percent of the bill right then and once a month they charge a fee just because we accept their card; this all comes to a [loss] of approximately 20 percent of the invoice. We are considering a credit card fee of 20 percent of invoice to offset the charges the credit card companies are charging us. Think about this: 90 percent of our invoices are over $1,000. That means the credit card companies are taking $200 of every $1,000 we invoice.
Progress has recently been made in the European Union to scale back interchange fees. MasterCard Worldwide reached an agreement on April 1 with European competition authorities to reduce credit card interchange fees to 0.30 percent and debit card fees to 0.20 percent, according to the Food Marketing Institute (FMI). This is down from 0.80 to 1.90 percent and 0.40 to 0.75 percent respectively.
Here at home, the House of Representatives plans to vote this week on H.R. 627, the Credit Cardholders’ Bill of Rights. According to FMI, Rep. Peter Welch (D-VT) and Rep. Bill Schuster (R-PA) are going to offer an amendment during debate about the bill to try and address interchange fees. FMI is urging its members to contact their representatives and voice their support for such a measure.
We’ll see how things shake out. I do know this: There are gobs of surveys and studies showing that consumers will be using plastic more often for purchases—big and small. Young Americans, ages 18-25, are more likely to use debit cards than any other payment type. I don’t expect these habits to change. And as more of them begin to frequent your garden center, your cost of doing business is going to go up.
-- Sarah
April 23, 2009
April 16, 2009
Hines announces management team and name change
Hines Horticulture, which was purchased in January by a privately held asset management firm, will now go by the name Hines Nurseries, according to a statement issued by the company. A new management team has also been put into place: Bob Sands, president and CEO; John Krajanowski, chief operations and production officer; Claudia Pieropan, senior vice president and CFO; Mike Trebing, senior vice president—sales & marketing. All four have extensive backgrounds in the nursery industry.
-- Sarah
March 27, 2009
ANLA member attends White House town hall meeting
The American Nursery & Landscape Association (ANLA) participated in a town hall meeting with President Barak Obama yesterday. Member Gary Blondell, owner of Gary’s Gardens in Severna Park, Md., represented ANLA at a meeting in the East Room of the White House.
“It was an exciting opportunity to be actively involved in ANLA’s legislative efforts. I don’t have to look any farther than the nurseries whose plants are critical to my business’ success, to recognize that these issues directly impact my bottom line,” Blondell said.
During the meeting, President Obama addressed questions that were submitted over the Internet in addition to several questions asked from audience members. Mr. Blondell was briefed before hand on ANLA’s current efforts to shift recognition for the value of plants beyond solely ornamental appeal to the environmental services they deliver, such as energy savings and carbon sequestration.
“Gaining recognition that plants deliver ecosystems services, measureable in hard dollars just like Energy Star appliances, represents the next frontier in increasing both the sales and profitability of plants and the managed landscape,” said Corey Connors, ANLA’s Director of Government Relations.
-- Sarah
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