Any given day, you can walk by the Crumbl and find a line of eager cookie eaters lining up out the door. Our cookies have become a teen sensation that Gen Z can’t seem to get enough of.

You know what Gen Z also can’t get enough of? Tapping to pay with their credit cards.

Most of my customers pay with their credit card, which is good for them and good for me. The safe, quick and easy transaction process is critical for my high-volume small business to keep customers happy and the line moving. So, when lawmakers push legislation that claims to help small businesses like mine by introducing changes to how I interact with credit cards, I take notice.

That’s exactly what’s happening with HB2629, a bill that would change how credit and debit cards work in Arizona. Supporters say it will save businesses money, but the truth is it’s a giveaway to massive corporate retailers like Walmart and Target at the expense of small business owners like me.

Simply put: businesses, big and small, pay banks and credit card networks a processing cost to run credit and debit cards, and thereby shift all payment and fraud risk away from the countless small businesses accepting credit card payments, like mine, to the banks and credit card networks. The processing cost also ensures transactions go through quickly and seamlessly without the hassles or risks of doing business with cash or check. And as a small business owner, I fully understand the value in banks and local credit unions helping ensure that my business is running smoothly and safely.

The proposed law won’t just cut into these benefits; it will also make it harder for small businesses to handle transactions efficiently.

HB2629 would carve out the tax portion of a purchase from the total amount when it comes to processing. That may sound harmless, but it would create a logistical nightmare for small business owners across the Grand Canyon State. 

Current credit card networks run the entire transaction as one amount. The change being proposed would potentially require two different transactions, one for tax and one for the transaction amount. That means less convenience for my customers and more expenses for me because in order to comply with the new legislation, businesses will need costly software upgrades. That’s an unnecessary burden for small businesses already operating on razor-thin margins.

And this isn’t just conjecture. We’ve seen this play out in other states.

In Illinois, where a similar bill passed, small businesses are expected to save an average of just $56 per year. Meanwhile, the biggest retailers, with entire teams dedicated to navigating new regulations, stand to benefit the most.

What’s more, these kinds of laws are often the first step toward broader restrictions on credit card rewards programs. Airlines, unions and consumer advocates have already sounded the alarm about how similar policies could gut rewards points that families and businesses alike rely on. In fact, I even use my credit card rewards points to give back to my employees — funding lunches and even helping my manager and her family take a well-deserved trip – opportunities that could disappear under this legislation. In other words, this bill isn’t just bad policy — it’s a step toward diminishing the rewards programs people like me and my customers have come to rely upon.

Small businesses employ half of Arizona’s workers and drive our economy forward. Yet, new regulations threaten to pile on costs, add red tape and give corporate giants another advantage.

Do we really want Arizona to be next in line for that kind of chaos? I’m biased, but I’d say don’t let the cookie crumble in our state. 

Molly Ashton owns and operates Crumbl Cookies locations in Queen Creek and Mesa.