Menu labeling to Become Law in 2011, NACS Helps Retailers Navigate the Rules
In an official memo from NACS? counsel, Steptoe and Johnson, retailers will find the first set of guidelines to prepare them for menu labeling requirements. For those companies with 20 or more locations provisions in the health care law mandate that calories be displayed on menus and menu boards and that other nutritional information be available in written form on the premises.
The calorie information must be adjacent to the menu item, or for food on display and self-service food the information must be on a tag or sign next to the individual item. The law does pre-empt states and other localities from enforcing any additional regulations.
NACS will be working with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) over the next year to ensure that regulations related to this law take into account the unique business model of a convenience store as compared to white tablecloth and quick service restaurants. The FDA will issue the final rules in March 2011 and that is when it is expected retailers will have to be officially in compliance.
To view the compliance document in its entirety click here.
NACS Delivers Nearly 25,000 Consumer Signatures from Swipe Fee Petition Campaign in Boise
Idaho convenience store owners spoke for more than 24,000 Idahoans on Thursday when they urged Congress to enact reforms to put an end to hidden credit card swipe fees that credit card companies take from American families.
?Idahoans made their voices heard loud and clear: It is time for elected officials to stand up to the credit card industry and large banks and reform credit card fees that today cost the average American household more than $400 a year,? said NACS Vice Chairman of Technology Patrick Lewis, partner of Twin Falls-based Oasis Stop ?N Go Convenience Stores. ?More than 25,000 customers took time from their busy days to deliver this message, and it is time for Congress to listen.?
Consumers are clearly concerned about how credit and debit card swipe fees result in higher retail prices. Last year, 7-Eleven stores delivered 1.66 million customer signatures ? including 1,090 from Idaho ? from a petition campaign urging Congress to stop unfair credit card fees. It was the most signatures ever delivered to Congress on a policy issue in American history. Earlier this year, more than 10,000 convenience stores across America collected consumer signatures on petitions in their stores in a campaign coordinated by NACS. The 24,497 Idahoans who signed their names to the petitions delivered today were part of that nationwide campaign.
?From coast to coast, customers are fed up with the credit card companies and their outrageous fees,? said Charley Jones, president of Boise-based Stinker Stores Inc. ?Millions of Americans have asked Congress to fix a clearly broken system.?
There are 798 convenience stores in Idaho; of that total, 489 (61 percent) are owned and operated as one-store ?mom-and-pop? businesses, according to the NACS/Nielsen TDLinx 2010 Convenience Industry Store Count.
These small businesses ? and now consumers ? are asking Congress to help level the playing field for retailers by giving them a seat at the negotiating table with banks to determine the fees assessed for every sale made by credit card, and ultimately reduce the costs of everyday goods for consumers.
Economists also suggest that credit card swipe fee reform also presents an opportunity for badly need job creation.
The recent study, ?The Costs of ?Charging It? in America? by Jiwon Velucci and Robert J. Shapiro, former U.S. Undersecretary of Commerce, found that if swipe fees were reduced to levels that reflected the actual costs of transaction processing, economic activity would increase enough to create 242,000 new jobs across the country.
?All we ask is that Congress simply enhance the competition by allowing retailers to negotiate with the dominant banks for the terms and rates of the fees,? said Suzanne Budge, executive director of the Idaho Petroleum Marketers and Convenience Store Association.
The Boise press conference generated coverage in local newspapers, television stations and Idaho-based internet news organizations."
NACS Staff Contact: Lyle Beckwith, lbeckwith@nacsonline.com
FDA Center for Tobacco Products To Launch Stakeholder Listening Series
The Food and Drug Administration?s (FDA) Center for Tobacco Products will launch a Stakeholder Listening Series to take full advantage of the knowledge, ideas, feedback, and suggestions from all communities interested in and affected by the Tobacco Control Act. Sessions will take place across the U.S. and summaries will be available online. Each session will focus on topics of greatest interest to the primary stakeholder communities and will include presentations by topic experts and the FDA. Read more.
The notice indicates that FDA will be developing and publishing a schedule for the listening sessions in the next few months. NACS will keep members apprised of the schedule once released and encourages retailers to participate.
For the most current update on tobacco regulations visit our Web site.� Here you will find a webinar presentation conducted in March, retailer questions and answers, and the official compliance document concerning the issues that affect retailers.
NACS Staff Contact: Lyle Beckwith, lbeckwith@nacsonline.com
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