I think we’re all way ahead of you on that one.

LOL you mentally checked out of the conversation a long ways back. You are used to being intellectually dishonest. That's what you're saying.

Fair enough, went back and reread. Admittedly I did gloss over the dramatic one with the shouty all caps and pics that really distracted more than they added to your point.

So you are in petroleum.

Your perspective makes sense now.

It's only logical that an industry where the margins could be less than the cost of transaction processing has certain accommodations.

I can sort of understand why you (incorrectly) think everyone who takes cards builds the processing cost into the product.

We don't.

We have relatively consistent prices that don't lend themselves to to the penny pricing so it's all $xx.99

We also don't have the luxury (need) of being able to change prices dynamically throughout the day.

We also for the most part don't really care.

We enjoy margins anywhere from 30-80+%

Are we aware of it and do we pay attention, sure, it's a line item on the balance sheet but it's so insignificant it rarely gets a second thought.

For us it's a cost of doing business which we gladly pay because more payment options means more sales.

You have to be a bit of a moron to worry about $0.75 if it contributed to a $50.00 profit.

So no, not everyone who processes cards builds the transaction cost into the product cost.

The local taco place (Jimboy's) does this. There's a little tiny sign by the POS terminal with the 'cash discount' weasel-wording.

why not call it a cash de-surcharge...

I totally agree that weasel wording just makes you look like a POS. But much worse than that, I am in a highly regulated business. The Business and Professions code in the State of California is loaded with regulations on the pricing, the signs, how accurate your wording is, which way your price sign faces, how tall your price sign letters are, and on and on and on. No way would I even think about calling my NORMAL pricing a DISCOUNT because some random wack-a-doo yokels on Pelican think "it's a good idea". No offense.

Wait a second. Didn't you say that you "hate" American Express? How can you now say that "its' so insignificant it rarely gets a second thought"?

You MIGHT want to give it a second thought though. Or a closer look. That's because in your example above, you may not realize the vastly varying rates that the credit card issuers are charging you. Hence, my original point that Capital One sucks balls.

Furthermore, you left out the "per transaction" charge. You say that you pay .4% for merchant services. But that does not include the per transaction fee, the monthly fee from your bank, not to mention charge backs - the times when a customer disputes the charges and lies to the credit card company in order to get free stuff. That happens to every merchant. That means instead of you paying .75 for credit card use on a profit of $50, you are paying up to double that amount when you include the per transaction fee. Even more if you look at all of the costs related to accepting credit cards.

Yes, I own a gas station and convenience store. I built it from dirt. I develop real estate in my real job. The gas station was meant to smooth out the business cycles. Real estate can be very peaky, but gas is practically constant. I also am building an apartment complex, and have an office development ready to start. I'm selling a Starbucks that I built 3 years ago. The only reason for mentioning this that I really could care less about every penny of profit. I get far more satisfaction from building a happy crew and making happy customers. The name of the game for an investor is quality cash flow, not instant profit. That means keeping your titty out of the wringer, and not doing really dumb things like lying about your credit card pricing to the public. I'm sure the yokel gallery here will still think "who cares"? Well let me put it this way - I have over $45K each DAY in credit card volume. It matters a whole Hell of a lot to me that I mind the details and stay on the right side of the law.

Now for the real question: If I pay cash to you for whatever you sell in order to make your$50 profit, how much discount do I get?

AMEX is insignificant because, we don't take it. No need. Anyone that has AMEX has VISA/Mastercard.

We don't pay 4%, never said we did.

If you pay me cash you don't get a discount because we don't have surcharges.

We sell digital goods, all sales final, no refunds no returns. That's industry standard.

If a retail partner wants to take it back that's on them, not my problem.

Which BTW, the retail brick n mortar sales, retail eats the transaction charges not me. Much like your convenience store,

But we are getting somewhere here.

Your convenience store, do you have a surcharge, sorry, adjust the sale price for every bag of chips, can of soda, box of condoms?

How do you handle it when someone buys say two products in a single transaction? Do they pay the transaction fee twice when you are only charged once?

Amex isn’t insignificant when there’s people like me that will preferentially choose a competitor that takes it. You’ll never know how much business you lost because you’ll never see a transaction or a cancellation.

If you buy the product from a retail partner I don’t care if you buy it from one who takes AMEX or not because they eat the charge not me.

I care even less because retail have already paid me for the product so if they want to take goats or chickens in trade more power to them.

If you buy it direct from me you’ll pay using something other than AMEX.

And no, it’s not a product you can get from a competitor, you either want that specific one or you don’t.

Even the largest outlet for digital entertainment products with close to $5 Billion in US revenue per year does not take AMEX.