Oh man, this is unbelievable. You’ve got the banking community, the financial community, pitted against the retail community,” says Sen. Mike Johanns (R-Neb.). “They’ve both been in my office and I’m a clear yes vote on this … so you can only imagine those who are trying to figure this out or are still on the fence. They must be getting flooded.”…
…But there has been little serious attention paid to the effects swipe fees have beyond the corporate world. Only one major economic study has attempted to quantify how much swipe fees cost U.S. consumers in terms of higher prices– a February 2010 paper by respected economist Robert Shapiro and analyst Jiwon Vellucci, which found that 56 percent of all swipe fees are passed on to consumers, raising costs for the average household by about $230 a year.

Whatever the ultimate cost of swipe fees for consumers, there’s no question that the resulting higher prices hit the poor hardest of all. Affluent consumers are more likely to pay with plastic, and both credit cards and debit cards frequently come with rewards programs that bestow frequent flyer miles, amazon.com discounts, trips to Disney World and a host of other benefits upon card users. So while swipe fees cause higher prices for everyone, affluent consumers get some of that money back in the form of rewards. The result is an effective transfer of wealth from poor shoppers to wealthier consumers: stores charge higher prices for goods in order to cover higher swipe fees, and those higher swipe fees are converted into rewards programs. According to an August study by the Boston Federal Reserve, the perks associated with plastic lead to an average wealth transfer of $771 from families making less than $20,000 a year to households earning $150,000 or more.

Huffington Post story

This market really has some explaining to do…

While the European payments industry hopes its declarations will prod U.S. banks into upgrading systems here, there is little chance that U.S. card issuers can be bullied to quickly adopt the Chip and PIN system. Already, several celebrated attempts to issue so-called smart cards — such as the American Express Blue card in the late 1990s — have fallen flat. In fact, Jun thinks it’s likely the U.S. system will skip over the European system and adopt even smarter card technology, such as the Near Field Communication chip, which allows consumers to make payments wirelessly without removing their cards — or for that matter, their cell phones — from their pockets.

Nice to hear about, but it still doesn’t solve our wireless range issues at open-air markets….

My schedule was too tight to be in Portland OR on a market day but of course, I was happy to see good food in local co-ops, and entrepreneurs in their food trucks all around town. I am told that the food cart system in Portland allows for long time stationary food carts in one place rather than having them roam the city. Although the consensus was that there may be some backlash to these food carts. I can imagine…
As a matter of fact, the entrepreneurial spirit is definitely alive and well all over Portland. But why not more year-round markets?
But that German deli was fantastic…

I continue my winter travel schedule that takes me to markets hither and yon. Mostly conferences on the state level and after the workshops or keynotes are done, I try to see at least one, two or a dozen markets while there.
Stacy Miller our Farmers Market Coalition leader, took me to this market for lunch and a look. I loved its vibrancy, size (it seems intimate because of how it is laid out) and multitude of uses. A market has been in operation here since 1782 and looks like it should expect to be here for some time.

Just handed the 4 budget templates to our print designer. They will be ready by next week and uploaded on our marketshare page.
These templates are for 4 different market types (different staff size, vendor fees and organizational structure) and forecast a 3-year budget forecast for each market.
I am also working on a budget for a token system and one for an earned income for beverage sales for a market. Those 2 scenarios will be ready by the end of the month.
Once we finish those, we will be adding a formula worksheet to create your own budgets. This tool will be available for free like our other tools. We hope to get the budget tool done by March.
If the budget sheets are useful to you, do let us know and if we can schedule other Share subjects…

Fascinating and necessary article for all food activists to read:

Genetic Engineering for Good — Emerging Ideas — Utne Reader.

Ahh, transparency. The idea of having a set of values and standing directly behind them. The Trader Joe’s story seems to be still developing, but certainly the sense of fun and the lower price points for some items (loss leaders) is selling their brand to white collar shoppers.

The Eco-Myth of Trader Joe’s – Emerging Ideas – Utne Reader.

I often check these reports to keep up on the news from the supermarket side. Often fascinating and sometimes about farmers markets, like this one:

One of marketumbrella.org’s favorite authors Rebecca Solnit adds another piece to her growing oeuvre about human-scaled endeavors, hope and social contracts:

Iceberg Economies and Shadow Selves: Further Adventures in the Territories of Hope.