A 7-Eleven Anti-Interchange Petition ‘Touches A Nerve’

Digital Transactions:

7-Eleven Inc. has gathered between 1 million and 1.2 million signatures on in-store petitions asking Congress to regulate interchange rates, and expects to have 3 million customer signatures by the time the petition drive ends Aug. 10, according to an executive with the Dallas-based convenience-store chain.

The response, says Keith Jones, director of government affairs at 7-Eleven, has gone well beyond the original goal of 1 million signatures. “To be honest, we’re a little surprised,” he says. “We’ve touched a nerve.” He says the company has distributed some 9,500 petition booklets and bases his current estimate of the signature count on “reports from folks in the field and anecdotal evidence.”

7-Eleven may soon be joined by at least two other c-store chains. These unnamed companies are readying efforts to rally customers in support of interchange regulation, according to the National Association of Convenience Stores, an Alexandria, Va.-based trade group and a long-time critic of interchange. “There are at least two talking about doing something—I’m not sure what,” says a NACS spokesman.

The 7-Eleven petition drive, which began in late June, features a spiral-bound booklet placed at the checkout counters of some 6,300 stores across the country. Language on the booklet’s cover says the store has been “hurt” by “unfair credit card fees” and appeals to customers as a “neighbor and friend” to “help tell Congress to do something about unfair credit card fees now.”