Same Story, Different Year
Credit card fees continue to eat into the industry's profits
The good news for convenience stores is that credit card fees in 2011 did not increase by as much as they did in 2010. The bad news, though, is the fees still rose by 18.3 percent â or an extra $10,939 per store. No other operating expense even came close to this double-digit increase.
Overall, the convenience industry last year paid $70,564 per unit in credit card fees, up from $59,625 the previous year. This equated to more than 13 percent of retailers' gross profits.
C-store operators also paid more in labor costs last year, specifically about 5 percent more or an additional $11,515 per store. Payroll taxes saw the largest percentage increase among labor costs, up 8.4 percent.
Wages, meanwhile, rose by 4.5 percent per store to reach $215,444 for the year. Labor costs now equal 50 percent of retailers' gross profits. â