Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/106363
STAFF PUBLISHER Bill Bowman bbowman@upandcomingweekly.com ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER Janice Burton editor@upandcomingweekly.com EDITOR Stephanie Crider stephanie@upandcomingweekly.com MARKETING/SALES Cynthia Deere cynthia@upandcomingweekly.com Linda McAlister Brown linda@upandcomingweekly.com Kristy Sykes kristy@upandcomingweekly.com Beverly Pone beverly@upandcomingweekly.com OFFICE & DISTRIBUTION MANAGER Laurel Handforth officemanager@ upandcomingweekly.com ACCOUNTING Paulette Reinhardt accounting@upandcomingweekly.com ART DIRECTOR Alicia Miller art@upandcomingweekly.com CONTRIBUTING WRITERS D.G. Martin, Pitt Dickey, Margaret Dickson, John Hood, Erinn Crider, Karen Poppele, Heather Griffiths ––––––––––– Up & Coming Weekly www.upandcomingweekly.com 208 Rowan Street P.O. Box 53461 Fayetteville, NC 28305 PHONE: (910) 484-6200 FAX: (910) 484-9218 Up & Coming Weekly is a "Quality of Life" publication with local features, news and information on what's happening in and around the Fayetteville/Cumberland County community. Up & Coming Weekly is published weekly on Wednesdays. Up & Coming Weekly welcomes manuscripts, photographs and artwork for publication consideration, but assumes no responsibility for them. We cannot accept responsibility for the return of unsolicited manuscripts or material. Opinions expressed by contributors do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher. The publisher reserves the right to edit or reject copy submitted for publication. Up & Coming Weekly is free of charge and distributed at indoor and outdoor locations throughout Fayetteville, Fort Bragg, Pope Air Force Base, Hope Mills and Spring Lake. Readers are limited to one copy per person. Subscriptions can be purchased for $30 for six months or $60 for 12 months, delivered weekly by first class mail. ©2007 by F&B Publications, Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction or use of editorial or advertisements without permission is strictly prohibited. INSIDE Calendar ........................................... 12 Concert Connection ........................ 14 TV ..................................................... 17 Movie Review .................................. 17 PUBLISHER'S PEN Swipe Fees, Swiped Business, Swiped Jobs! by BILL BOWMAN Uh oh! Have you heard the news? Starting this week small small business to grow and our Historic Downtown to flourish businesses, especially retailers, who are still struggling in with the growth and development being encouraged by this recessionary economy, are about to have another major successful small businesses. These added fees will only drive headache. Beginning on Monday, Jan. 27, they are going to have up the cost of doing business, creating higher prices while to contend with the decision discouraging consumers on whether or not to charge to spend money locally credit card swipe fees. and encouraging them to Yes, consumers all around purchase goods and services the country, need to start online and not participate at taking a closer look at their all with local businesses. credit card statements to try In addition, large retailers and identify those extra fees and box stores like Walmart that may be coming in the and Target will resist near future. implementing the fees, Formally, these charges again putting small private will be called "checkout fees" businesses at a disadvantage. that retailers will have the Could this really happen? option to tack on to all your You bet. And, along with credit card transactions. the loss of business you Yes, it's legal though the will also have a loss of jobs. practice has been banned in Not a good scenario for 10 states. North Carolina is a community looking to not one of them. Yet. This increase commerce locally. new fee option and practice Industry experts estimate is not going to be good from these swipe fees will cost the a consumers perspective. average household more than How much will the $400 a year. Since we all checkout fee be? Good buy less when prices go up, I question. One consumerwould suggest everyone start action group reports that looking for ways to negotiate they will be required to limit prices down. Pay with cash New credit card fees are a possibility at local businesses satrting Jan. 27. what they charge between or (gulp) do without. In any 1.5 and 3 percent of the total case, this is not a good thing. credit-card purchase. What? That actually could be more than So, keep your eyes open, check your receipts, shop local the bottom line profit of the retailer. But, don't worry, those whenever possible and hope this economic madness soon ends — who do charge fees will be required to tell you about it or print and with a happy ending. I like happy endings. it on the receipt or post signs indicating that they are adding Oh, by the way, thanks for reading Up & the fee onto credit-card purchases. Ouch! Coming Weekly. Why this concerns me and the reason I want to bring it to BILL BOWMAN, Publisher, Up & your attention is because in this community, small businesses Coming Weekly, COMMENTS? editor@ are the heart of successful economic development. We want upandcomingweekly.com. Fayetteville's Weather Forecast Thursday January 31 Friday February 1 Call 910.354.1679 Sunday February 3 Saturday February 2 24 / High 62° Low 34° Mostly Sunny 4 Free Wheelin' Feelin' ....................... 18 Horoscopes/Advice Goddess ......... 19 Classifieds ........................................ 20 Games .............................................. 22 UCW JAN. 30 - FEB. 5, 2013 High 55° Low 34° Sunny High 60° Low 38° Mostly Sunny Monday February 4 Tuesday February 5 High 54° Low 31° Partly Cloudy High 55º Low 31º Partly Cloudy High 56º Low 32º Partly Cloudy 7 Forecast available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM