LAS VEGAS — The National Grocers Association intends to continue to fight to end interchange fees from credit card companies, Carole Bitter, the association's outgoing chairwoman, told NGA members here last week during her state of the association address.
Bitter, president and chief executive officer of Friedman's Freshmarket, Butler, Pa., ended her two-year term as the head of NGA during its 26th annual convention here. She is succeeded by Mike Jackson, president and chief operating officer of Supervalu's Retail East division and Save-A-Lot.
Suggesting that retailers look at their own profit-and-loss statements to see the impact interchange fees from MasterCard and Visa can have on a company, Bitter said she checked her own books before leaving for the convention and discovered the following:
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Interchange fees at her six-store company were 0.68% of sales for the year to date, compared with 0.61% of sales a year ago.
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Interchange fees during the month of December were 0.74%, compared with 0.67% in December 2006.
“We must dramatically reduce or eliminate these fees,” Bitter said, “and NGA is working hard to help level the playing field with a multi-pronged approach that includes legal, regulatory and legislative solutions. The goal is to reduce rates to a fraction of today's fees.”
In other remarks, Bitter said NGA membership has risen 5% over the last year. She also said attendance at this year's convention is up at least 4% — the seventh consecutive year of increases, she noted — with participation on the convention floor up 17%.
NGA also named six new members to its board of directors: Mike Byars, president and CEO, Minyard Food Stores; Gerry Norkus, president, Norkus Enterprises; Jim Nilsson, Jr., president, Geissler's Supermarkets; George Lankford, president and CEO, Affiliated Foods; Marc Smith, co-president, C&S Wholesale Grocers; and Jim Rogers, president and CEO, Food Industry Alliance of New York State.
