August 2017 Patriot Capital Industry News


Why Wait? No Payments, No Interest Until 2018! 

Patriot Capital's Why Wait program allows you to upgrade your site this summer, and have no interest or principal payments until 2018.

The program applies to all C-Store and fueling equipment, including gas pumps and underground storage tank (UST) upgrades.

The promotion applies to all brands of equipment, installation, shipping and taxes for upgrades and new sites ordered by Nov. 30, 2017.

Additional information and program details are available on the Patriot Capital website.


To benefit from Section 179 tax savings in 2017, equipment must be installed and in service by December. Check with your distributor for current lead times to ensure you don’t miss these tax savings.


How To Avoid Getting Skimmed at the Pump 

Here are some tips to help your customers be protected at the pump. 

Gas stations are targets of criminals who use data-grabbing skimmers to pull information from drivers' credit and debit cards. 

Lyle Beckwith, senior vice president for government relations at NACS, states gas stations are targeted because of the volume of business that they generate. "Thieves find it relatively easy to use gas station islands as cover while they tamper with the machines."

  • Use cards with PIN numbers - a Federal Reserve study says consumers are four times more likely to be ripped off if their transaction is made without a PIN. 
  • Avoid older pumps if you can - these are more likely to be broken into or tampered with. 
  • Check to see whether the pump has been tampered with - check the seal tape to see if it's broken or if the keypad membrane is raised. 
  • Use an app - retailers can use the SkimDefend app that will track criminals attempts to alter the pumps
  • If you suspect a pump has been tampered with - alert the gas station operator, who should then immediately shut down the use of the pump and have a technician inspect it. 
  • Check your bank and credit card statements - if anything looks out of order, alert your bank immediately. 

“Once a gas station gets hit with a skimmer, they’re then branded,” James Miller, Florida Retail Association spokesman. “Especially local people will pick up on it, and people will be hesitant to go to that gas station for a while, if ever again.” via NPR 


What’s Changed Since December?

Chris Santy, President, Patriot Capital
Although many people are unsure what’s changed, or not changed, in Washington since December, another topic is of greater concern to many C-Store owners.  In December, when Visa pushed out the EMV date from 2017 to 2020, some convenience store operators pushed out their upgrade plans for 3 years. 

Here’s what’s changed since December, and why you consider updating your upgrade plans.

  1. The first EMV pumps are now processing EMV transactions.  Gilbarco announced their first ‘live EMV’ site in June. Industry consensus is that over 50% of installed pumps will have EMV capability by the end of 2018.
  2. Consumer publications, including USA Today and The Washington Post, are increasingly reporting on the risks to consumers of not using EMV payment.  USA Today suggests “Consumers can try to protect themselves by looking for retailers that have enabled chip-based credit and debit card use on their POS terminals.”
  3. President Trump has proposed significant changes to the tax code.  If these changes are implemented, the after tax cost of capital equipment may increase by over 30.
  4. Bonus depreciation, currently at 50%, will fall to 40% in 2018 and 30% in 2019 under the current tax rules.  
  5. The Fed has increased interest rates 3 times, with another 4 increases forecast by Kiplinger in the next year to eighteen months.

We’ve developed a checklist of considerations for upgrading your site. Download the checklist here.

Patriot Capital offers a variety of equipment financing options for C-stores, fuel marketers and jobbers. To get a quick quote, or find an advisor near you, visit the Patriot Capital website or call (877) 527-0383. 


Did you know that Patriot Capital finances equipment for commercial and government fueling sites? Card locks, warehouse fueling, and fueling depot equipment may be financed. 


13 Must-Have iPad Apps to Run Your Retail Store and Increase Sales 

This blog from Shopify contains some tools that can be helpful to you in running your store.  A couple of our favorites:

  • Magicplan allows you to quickly design or update a floor plan for your store
  • Colorsnap from Sherwin Williams allows you to see what your store would look like with new colors.  Easily add a new color to a picture of your interior or exterior.
  • Scanner Pro allows you to use your phone or iPad’s camera to create PDF files of your documents and receipts, quickly clearing up your paper clutter.  Files can be emailed or loaded to cloud storage.

8 Predictions for the Future of Retail Technology  

A newly released study from JLL, an investment-management company, is predicting technology transformations over the next 25 years in the retail industry. CSP Daily News broke down the report to extract trends that are most likely to affect the C-store industry over the next 25 years. 

  • Geofencing
  • Mobile Payments
  • Drone Delivery
  • Augmented reality (AR) versus Virtual Reality (VR)
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Internet of Things
  • No Checkout 
  • Self-Driving Vehicles

Read the full story from CSP here.

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