July 4, 20166

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Happy Independence Day from the Minnesota Retailers Association!
4th of July 
Happy Independence Day: The First Two Paragraphs Of The Declaration Of Independence

"When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bonds which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness."

Retail TAP Talk 
Onboard Like You Mean It!: No-Cost August 4 Seminar

If you think employee onboarding is all about HR forms, training videos, and company policy presentations, you've lost your best employees even before their first day of work!

Onboard like you mean it! Join MnRA for our no-cost August 4 Retail TAP Talk seminar for retailers and service companies featuring recognition expert Hillary Feder, of Hillary's.

See how top performing retailers and service businesses turn onboarding upside down to engage and retain their employees.

Attendance limited, register now!

Processing Fees 
Merchants Rally to Fight Legislation Permitting Increases in Debit Card Fee

From FSR, June 15, 2016

"The National Restaurant Association and the Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA) reacted to the introduction of legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives to repeal reforms to the fees that merchants pay when a debit card is used to make a purchase.

Laura Chadwick, director of Commerce and Entrepreneurship for the National Restaurant Association, said the proposed legislation would "repeal hard-fought debit swipe fee reform that has helped to keep costs low for restaurant customers," adding that the existing Durbin Amendment "placed limits on the fees banks charge to process debit card transactions and injected a degree of competition, transparency, and fairness where there was absolutely none before."

Swipe fee reform, also known as the Durbin Amendment, passed the Senate in 2010 with 64 votes and was included in the Dodd Frank Financial Reform Law. The reforms require that the fees banks and card networks charge every time a debit card is swiped are "reasonable and proportionate to the cost of processing the transaction." Prior to the passage of reforms, card networks utilized their overwhelming market power to raise fees at will. Swipe fees are estimated to cost merchants and consumers $50 billion every year.

"Repealing Durbin would once again allow banks and card networks to impose outrageous fees on merchants across the country, while hurting everyone outside Wall Street,"said Austen Jensen, RILA's vice president for government affairs. "RILA and the broader merchant community will fight any effort to repeal these reforms and we urge members of Congress to do the same." 


Federal Update 
Retailers Say Overtime Expansion Will Lead to Demotions

From the National Retail Federation, June 23, 2016

"The National Retail Federation today told the House Small Business Committee that new federal overtime regulations will lead to hiring freezes and layoffs for full-time workers if enacted as planned December 1.

"Proponents of this rule have touted the changes as a welcomed job creator," NRF Senior Vice President for Government Relations David French said. "These claims are riddled with partial truths."

"Supporters of the rule who celebrate studies predicting a potential increase in part-time jobs fail to acknowledge to the public that any increase in part-time jobs comes at the expense of full-time employees' hours and earnings," French said. "The creation of part-time jobs due to hiring freezes or layoffs of full-time employees is hardly something to celebrate."

French's comments came in a letter to members of the committee, which is holding a hearing today on the "damaging repercussions" of overtime regulations released by the Labor Department in May.

NRF has argued that any job creation will come only if companies hire part-time employees who could work at straight time for a few hours a week rather than paying time-and-a-half to full-time workers when they go over 40 hours a week.

NRF urged committee members to support the Protecting Workplace Advancement and Opportunity Act, which would pause implementation of the new regulations and require the Labor Department to complete a comprehensive analysis of the impact the changes would have on small businesses and lower-wage regions of the country. In addition, the bill would block the regulations' requirement that the dollar threshold for overtime eligibility be automatically increased every three years.

"These are studies that DOL should have undertaken before issuing its final rule and on which the public deserves an opportunity to comment," French said." 

Consumer Trends 
Study Finds 31% Of Shoppers Buy Online At Least Once A Week

From Retail DIVE, Daphne Howland, June 9, 2016


"Almost a third of consumers (31%) shop online at least once a week compared to 22% last year, and a 41% increase from two years ago, according to a white paper released Wednesday by public relations firm Walker Sands.

Over the same period, the number of consumers shopping online less than once per month has dropped from 38% to 27%, according to the report. Still, The majority of shoppers prefer to buy in physical stores for all product categories except for books (68% prefer online), consumer electronics (67% prefer online) and office supplies (51% prefer online).

Just 9% took advantage of same-day shipping over the past year, but nearly half (49%) said they'd shop online even more if same-day shipping were available. Still, free shipping continues to be the top driver, according to the report, with almost 90% reporting that free shipping would make them shop more online. One-day shipping (69%) and free returns (68%) were also big incentives to online shopping. More than half (51%) say they've placed an online order and picked it up in store." 

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Minnesota Retailers Associaiton
400 Robert Street North, suite 1540
St. Paul, MN 55101
Tel. (651) 227-6631 - mnretail.org - [email protected]