IGA CEO John Ross spent May 19-20 in Washington, D.C. at the National Grocers Association's (NGA) Fly-in for Fair Competition, where independent retailers, wholesalers, and state association executives gathered to advocate for a level playing field in the grocery industry.
During meetings with representatives on Capitol Hill, the groups called for enforcement of the Robinson-Patman Act and legislation to reform credit card routing to lower swipe fees, in addition to calling on Congress to pass a strong Farm Bill that ensures grocery retail remains at the center of delivering nutrition assistance through SNAP.
Ross shares the below message with IGA members and partners, regarding the need to reform credit card swipe fees.
Click to watch IGA CEO John Ross' message for IGA members and partners about credit card swipe fees.
Transcript of IGA CEO John Ross' video
"Well I'm here in Washington, D.C. meeting with a whole slew of senators today on credit card reform. Now, why would IGA be meeting with senators about credit cards? Well, let me give you just a simple number. The IGA stores in the United States, and our shoppers, pay seven times the credit card processing fees than the stores in Australia, or in Ireland, or Poland, or China.
"So why should American shoppers pay seven times the rate for credit card processing fees—because it's built into the cost of goods—than other countries? It's because here in the United States we have a duopoly. Mastercard and Visa locked down essentially all of the credit card processing fees and retailers like IGA grocery stores are held hostage.
So we're trying to fix that today, trying to get some justice in the system and all we ask these senators to do is to vote to allow fair competition, to break up that duopoly and allow us to bid it out to any bank. If we do that, we could lower the cost of groceries immediately, so wish me luck."
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