Comment by ryandrake
2 years ago
It's already impossible in the USA to know what you're going to pay for something until you get to the checkout line. This just makes it worse.
Why not go even further? Itemize the marginal cost of maintaining your property's parking lot for those customers who visit your business by car? Charge customers a "store heating fee" in the winter? Customer support fee if they talk to anyone? Just as ridiculous. Processing credit cards is just one of many costs of doing business that you need to account for when you price your products.
> Itemize the marginal cost of maintaining your property's parking lot for those customers who visit your business by car
This isn't that uncommon, quite a few places in Europe do this actually.
Usually there's a barrier at the parking lot entrance. You get a ticket when entering, which you then have to put in a machine when leaving. The machine calculates your fee based on how long your car was parked. Modern systems are far more automated and use license plate readers instead.
Those parking lots are not owned by the stores. It's usually by the city or some other property investor.
If it happens to be a store-owned parking that charges per hour, it's to prevent abuse from drivers going to other stores nearby if it's in downtown. Charging for parking outside your store in a less dense district is equal to putting up a sign that you don't want customers.
I can give discounts to customers however I want to, thank you. As long as the customer knows what card they are going to use, they know exactly what the cost will be. I am all for posting sales tax rates as well as any transaction processing fees at the door, too, though.
No thanks, I’m just gonna go to the grocery store down the street where they don’t make me do linear algebra just to buy a box of Froot Loops.
You don't have to do the math, they do it for you
I'm guessing you never eat at any restaurants either since calculating a percentage is about as hard as linear algebra for you?
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There's a local restaurant that has a 3% CC surcharge and a 10% cash discount. I like going there and paying cash.
> Why not go even further? Itemize the marginal cost of maintaining your property's parking lot for those customers who visit your business by car?
Aka... charge for parking? I mean? This is pretty common? I've always found it annoying that stores will validate parking for motorists but if I choose to take public transit or bikeshare, I don't get any corresponding debate.