Questions 176-180 refer to the following
article. When gas station manager Roger Randolph
realized it was costing him money each time someone filled up with $4 agallon
gas, he hung a sign on his pumps: "No more credit cards." He may be the first in
West Virginia to ban plastic, but gas station operators nationwide are reporting
similar woes as higher prices translate into higher credit card fees the
managers must pay, squeezing profits at the pump. "The more they buy, the more
we lose," said Randolph, who manages Mr. Ed’s Chevron in St. Albans. "Gas prices
go up, and our profits go down." His complaints target the so-called interchange
fee—a percentage of the sale price paid to credit card companies on every
transaction. The percentage is usually fixed at just under 2 percent but the
dollar amount of the fee rises with the price of the goods or services. As gas
tops $4 a gallon, that pushes fees toward 1O cents a gallon. Now stations, which
typically mark up gasoline by 11 to 12 cents a gallon, are seeing profits shrink
or even reverse. In a good month, Randolph’s small operation would yield a $60
profit on gasoline sales. But that’s been buried as soaring prices forced the
station to pay about $500 a month in interchange fees. "At these prices, people
aren’t making any money," said Jeff Lenard, spokesman for the National
Association of Convenience Stores. "It’s brutal." Lenard’s group reports
convenience stores paid roughly $7.6 billion in credit card fees last year,
while making $3.4 billion in profits. The credit card companies
say fees are just part of the cost of doing business. MasterCard has capped
interchange fees for gas purchases of $50 or more, said company spokeswoman
Sharon Gamsin. Accepting MasterCard also gives gas stations "increased sales,
greater security and convenience, lower labor costs, and speed for their
customers at the pump," Gamsin said in an e-mail to the Associated Press. Visa
argues that the fees are offset "by the tangible benefits to stations and their
customers, such as the ability to pay at the pump," the company said in a
statement to the AP. What is the basic tone of the writer judging from the article