QUECHEE, Vt. — For years, the Quechee Mobil Mart has welcomed visitors to Woodstock, selling them gasoline, convenience store stapes and gifts. Sheryl Trainor has owned the business since 1995.

But in mid-May, Quechee Mobil Mart locked its doors and filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy status—all because of the fees associated with accepting credit and debit cards, Trainor told the Vermont Standard. “The biggest single factor leading to the financial situation at my business was the prevalence of credit and debit card use in today’s society,” she said.

Mike Pearce, who owns Mike’s Store and Mobil gas station, agreed. “Ten years ago, credit card purchases were less than 30% of our business,” he said. “Today, most of our sales are paid for with plastic.”

With credit card companies charging retailers between $1 and $4 per transaction, “the profit margins are so low on a lot of our merchandise that on small sales we actually lose money because of the swipe fees,” said Pearce.

“The American public is deceived into thinking that the convenience of not carrying cash and the benefits of cash back and airline points have no negative consequences, only benefits,” Trainor added. “They are wrong.” Trainor pointed out that at her store, credit card fees ranked second after labor costs in terms of expenses.

“In a business where the bulk of my sales (gasoline) yielded little more than pennies per gallon,” Trainor said, “losing half or more of those pennies in swipe fees and other charges to the big banks and credit card companies, guaranteed a broken business model.”