Comment by insane_dreamer
2 years ago
A large segment (in the US) that does _not_ subsidize credit card fees are gas stations, where, for the most part, the price for paying in cash is lower than with credit, or there is a per transaction surcharge for using a credit or debit card.
Car-centric as it is, gas prices are arguably the commodity that US consumers are most price sensitive to (and which is also most commonly evoked in politics). So this shows that consumers would prefer to discriminate between card and no-card purchases if given the option, except that the vast majority of retail outlets do not give them that option.
Is this still true somewhere? I thought this went out decades ago, except maybe for a few Mom and Pop places.
Still true even for bigger brands like Shell or BP. They usually have two numbers on their price display, one is often about 5 cents higher than the other per gallon (guess which is credit/cash). It's interesting that the number for credit is usually way larger than the number for cash, implying most people use credit cards.
I only see it for diesel in my area, and the fee is probably worth it for truckers as opposed to carrying cash.