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Par Mar Stores Raise $28,111.45 for Mak-A-Wish
Marietta, OH (October 14, 2010)- Par Mar Stores presented a check to the Make-A-Wish Foundation on last month for $28,111.45 to help grant the wishes of children diagnosed with life-threatening conditions. Sandra Morgenstern, President of Par Mar Oil Company, said, “I am extremely proud of this year’s Make-A-Wish Campaign. Par Mar Stores hosted its most successful single year effort for the Make-A-Wish campaign. This is all about making a difference in a child’s life and we are very appreciative of the public who truly supported this effort at all Par Mar Stores locations.”
Morgenstern said that all the funds raised through the campaign will go back to the Chapters of the Make-A-Wish Foundation where raised and will be used solely to grant children’s wishes. Par Mar Stores sold Wish stars for $1.00 in their convenience stores. In addition to selling the stars, store managers had to get creative to raise money. We served many hot dogs, climbed ladders until a goal was met, and had customers throw balloons at managers.
A regional Manager for Make-A-Wish Southern West Virginia, said, ‘When we meet a wish child, we ask them, ‘If you could go anywhere, be anything, meet anyone, or have anything…what would it be?’ When a child answers this question, a wish is born. Through Par Mar’s help, many more children in our region will have the opportunity to answer those questions and experience the hope, strength and joy that comes with them. We are so incredibly thankful for Par Mar’s support.’
Par Mar Stores Kick-off Wednesday Wish Day for 11th Year
Marietta, OH (October 14, 2010) - Par Mar Stores will
kick off their annual Wednesday Wish Day (WWD) Fundraiser on November
1, 2010. Visit any Par Mar Store location is your neighborhood to purchase
a tag for $1.00. The proceeds of WWD benefit children on Christmas morning.
Par Mar Stores will be disbursing the WWD funds through the Salvation
Army Angel Tree program.
Par Mar Stores thanks the community for past and present support of
this great cause.
Par Mar Stores Celebrate Ten Years of Giving
Marietta, Ohio (January 15, 2010) – Your neighborhood Par Mar Stores are celebrating the 10 year anniversary of the Wednesday Wish Day program. This program was developed in order to help local less-fortunate families by providing them with presents on Christmas morning. Over the past 10 years, with the help of donations from customers, Par Mar Stores has raised almost $200,000, raising almost $30,000 in 2005 alone! Par Mar not only accepts donations at each location, but employees hold events, such as cookouts, bake sales and drawings, in order to increase donations throughout the year. This year, the Salvation Army was chosen to distribute funds raised in the community. Par Mar presented the organization with a check for more than $21,000 for local children. Par Mar Stores would like to thank all of their customers for their support of the Wednesday Wish Day program. Par Mar employees shopped at Christmas for the Angel Tree (shown below) with money they raised throughout the yea through raffles, bake sales, etc. Click on a photo to see it larger.
Help Us to End Credit/Debit Card Swipe Fees
What are swipe fees?
A swipe fee is a fee collected from retailers by the credit card companies
and their member banks every time a credit or debit card is used to
pay for a purchase. This fee is also known as "interchange." This
fee varies with type of card, size of merchant and other factors, but
as much as $2 of every $100 you spend on plastic goes to card issuers.
Credit and debit card interchange collected by Visa and MasterCard
banks totaled about $48 billion in 2008, triple what it was in 2001.
These fees raise prices for consumers. In 2008, the average American
family paid about $427 in interchange fees.
How much do hidden swipe fees cost
consumers?
Swipe fees add to the price of everything we buy, even if we choose not
to use a credit or debit card. Americans paid about $48 billion in credit
card swipe fees in 2008 alone, more than all other credit card fees combined.
How are swipe rates determined?
Visa and MasterCard each separately work with their member banks to set
swipe fees. The agreement between these banks, which should compete
for business, is illegal price fixing and it hurts consumers and merchants.
How fast are swipe fees increasing?
Visa and MasterCard collected about $48 billion in swipe fees in 2008,
triple what was collected in 2001. In 2008, the average American family
paid about $427 in swipe fees. Swipe fees are rising the fastest on
gasoline purchases; payouts to the credit card industry have more than
doubled since 2004. Credit card companies and their member banks have
increased the amount of swipe fees collected by both increasing rates
and encouraging more people to pay by plastic instead of cash.
Don't these fees just cover the cost
of processing the transactions?
Even though advances in technology continue to bring down the cost
of transaction processing, swipe fees keep going up. A recent study
concluded that only 13 percent of the swipe fees that the big credit
card companies collect actually goes for transaction processing. Most
of the money goes toward profits for the banks, rewards programs that
benefit mostly affluent cardholders and direct mail marketing campaigns
that clog mailboxes with nine billion unsolicited credit card offers
every year. Many of those unsolicited mailings include so-called "convenience checks"that
can be stolen and cashed by someone other than the authorized card holder.
Yet the card companies and their banks spend only four percent of the
swipe fees they collect on measures to protect consumers from this and
other forms of credit card fraud.
How do swipe fee rates in the U.S.
compare to fees in other countries?
U.S. swipe fees average close to two percent, while in other industrialized
countries like Australia the rate is one-half of one percent and in Europe
the rate for cross border transactions is less than one-third of one
percent.
Why are swipe fees so high in the
U.S.?
Visa and MasterCard each separately work with their member banks collectively
to set the price of swipe fees. This is illegal price fixing and hurts
Americans. Credit card swipe fees have tripled since 2001 and there's
no end in sight, even though the actual cost of transaction processing
continues to go down.
Do consumers who pay with cash also
pay hidden swipe fees?
American consumers pay the hidden credit card swipe fee on virtually
every purchase they make, whether they use a credit card or not because
the credit card companies require merchants to spread the cost of these
fees to all of their customers. The system is structured so that credit
card companies make more money on each transaction when the price of
retail goods increases. For example, even though the cost of processing
a $1 transaction is virtually the same as processing a $100 transaction,
the swipe fee paid on that $100 sale is higher because the swipe fee
is calculated as a percentage of the total sale. The higher the sale,
the higher the fee.
