It looks like the state’s fearless leaders will do anything, including failing to consider the consequences, in order to appear to be doing something about gas prices. Seen in the Courant:
State legislators joined the crush of politicians eager to act on gasoline prices Thursday by permitting cash discounts and repealing a July 1 tax increase. [...]
The cash-discount provision was sought by retailers, who complained that some franchise agreements barred lower prices for customers paying cash.
Fox said the savings would come from eliminating credit card fees and other costs associated with credit. Retailers now lose two or three days of “float,” the time it takes to actually collect revenue on credit sales, he said.
“The cash customer now subsidizes the credit customer,” he said.
About 75 percent of retail gas purchases in Connecticut are made with credit cards.
Well, at least someone finally acknowledged the subsidy.
In an earlier post on the subject, I hypothesized a 50/50 cash/credit split, which would imply a dime discount for cash customers, and a dime increase for credit customers. At a 75 credit / 25 cash mix…well, that’s a bit less of a hike for the plastic-wielders.
Still, I think this is quite a bit of fuss being generated over the privilege of charging us more for gas, disguised as an attempt to drive petrol costs down.
I see this law not as a discount for customers using cash to pay for gas but as a penalty to customers that use credit/debit cards to pay for their fuel purchases. If the retailers are going to charge ten cents per gallon more to use a credit card then I think that I will start purchasing my fuel in 1 gallon increments and get my moneys worth out of them. For the last 15 to 20 years, the retailers and banks have encouraged and conditioned consumers to not carry cash and make all of our purchases with credit/debit cards all the while saving money by reducing their staffing levels since they do not need as many employees to handle the streamlined transaction as they did when handling cash and now they want us to believe that the practice is actually costing them money! Lets not be so naive. It is time to let the banks and retailers know that we as consumers are sick of being taken advantage of. I will no longer make any purchases from institutions that practice this type of behavior towards the people that are keeping their doors open. One more thing. If I buy a $1.37 cup of coffee and I pay with cash, shouldn’t I only have to pay $1.27