Credit card fees for businesses are around 3% when you use services like Square, Shopify, Quickbooks, or Paypal.
It sounds really expensive, right? Maybe, but maybe not ...
Covid-19 has caused lots of new rules to apply at our local farmer's market - one is that we are required to have a second person in our booth if we handle money.
Let me lay out some numbers for you. Let's say a "fair" wage for a casual person for a gig at the market is $10/hr and the person is at the market for 5 hours. The cost of the market for a second person just to handle money would be $50.
How much in sales do you need to breakeven with the $50 if your credit card fees are 3%? $1,666 per market.
Our sales per market last year averaged $539 - Less than 1/3 the sales needed to breakeven for a second person and that included many website pre-orders.
What are the average daily sales for a farmers market vendor? According to Cornell University. Meat/Poultry vendors average $308 per market.
Add the risk to you and your gig worker being in the same space for 5 hours along with cost for hour and fuel it takes for the trip to town when the bank is open for deposits/change and the answer is clear - please just pay me by credit or debit if you can. (some checks are fine too because I asked our bank to increase the limits for mobile deposit).
Maybe the sales will be higher this year if people realize how important supporting local food is to our food security ...
