Mar08
When I first got “volunteered” to do PR on swipe fees half a dozen years ago, I thought this was a subject for what my old boss on Capitol Hill used to call “green eye-shaded accountants.” Who could care about a couple of percentage points on a credit or debit card transaction? But when I [...]
Feb01
Consumers have heard a lot lately about how retailers have supposedly begun imposing a surcharge for credit card use. What they probably haven’t seen, however, are any actual surcharges. That’s because the surcharge scare that has erupted across the country is a propaganda campaign staged by the card industry in an attempt to divert attention [...]
Oct31
The National Retail Federation has a first-class government relations department dedicated to defending and pursuing the retail industry’s public policy priorities and interests. But you don’t have to take my word for it. Recently, two of NRF’s government relations staff were named tops in their industry. For the second consecutive year, The Hill newspaper named [...]
Oct01
A year after debit card swipe fee reform took effect, shoppers aren’t necessarily seeing signs in stores that say “debit discount.” But that doesn’t mean retailers aren’t passing along savings of up to $18 million a day. “Depending on the store, shoppers are paying lower prices, getting better service or avoiding price hikes that otherwise [...]
Sep12
Just as the Shop.org Annual Summit has grown in strength and popularity over the past ten years – increasing ten-fold from just 400 attendees in 2002 to over 4,000 in 2012 – the online retail industry has boomed as well. E-commerce has grown from a $40 billion dollar industry in 2002 to an anticipated $225 [...]
Jul16
The $7 billion settlement in a retail industry lawsuit over Visa and MasterCard swipe fees announced over the weekend was initially reported as a victory for retailers. But as NRF and retail companies have begun to look more closely at the proposed deal, it’s not clear that there would be much long-term impact on the [...]
Dec14
What did NRF accomplish this year?
Oct21
Behind the announcement of every big campaign, there is a strategist in the background pulling the strings and making sure the right people – and issues – stay in the spotlight. The PR industry’s most prominent publication – PRWeek – has recognized just that in NRF’s newest executive hire Tita Freeman with a full feature [...]
Oct06
Bank of America announced earlier this week that they would begin charging their customers $5 per month to use their debit cards. Since that announcement, there has been an enormous fallout as Bank of America customers are outraged that the banking industry — already known for its uncanny ability to find suspect fees to levy [...]
Consumers, commentators riled up over new Bank of America debit card fee
An NRF op-ed about Bank of America’s new $5 fee for debit card users is being picked up in newspapers across the country as television commentators and even some bankers join the public outrage against BofA. “The financial giant is trying to justify the move as a consequence of new federal regulations limiting the amount [...]