Thanks for giving consumers a peek behind the curtain. There's a rant in me somewhere about this SCOTUS helping to kill competition but I won't clog your comment section. Thanks again for an illuminating read.
Wow! I never knew any of this. I have an AMEX and it's my primary card due to rewards. I put all of my gas and groceries and drug co-pays on there and pay the bill at the end of the month so I can maximize my rewards. However, I've had quite a few small business refuse to accept it, saying they don't take AMEX. I always thought stores were allowed to choose what cards they accept.
So grateful I stumbled upon this post. I appreciate how my friends are so enthusiastic about supporting small businesses, but I remember how uncomfortable I felt when I was around when the whole concept of small business Saturday rolled around. I just hope, like you said, that folks support small business year-round.
I wish consumers realized that all those great perks like airmile points and discounts at places like LL Bean don't come from the generosity of the credit card company. They come from the various stores that accept your credit card. The greater the perks, the more the store owner has to pay from the purchase.
I worked at a small retail shop for many years and saw the monthly statements from the credit card processor. Some fancy perks Visa cards had processing fees (also called discount rates) over 5% for the transaction. Amex wasn't the worst by far.
They were going to feature a company for which I was CFO in their small business ad campaign. The company I worked for was a $40 million company with 2 million customers. Not my definition of small business.
🙄 And it’s not just Amex! That broad definition of “small” makes it impossible to analyze what’s happening for businesses with, say, fewer than 10 employees. Does the S in SBA really stand for small, either?
Thank you for bringing awareness to what Small Business Saturday communicates to the small business owner. I'm disappointed about AmEx. I don't have an AmEx card, so that's good info for the future.
My dad owns a business that provides a service repairing electric motors, and I promise you he won't work on a Saturday, anyway. His loyal customers come to him when they need him, not when the internet tells them to suddenly start supporting his business. I appreciate hearing this on Saturday, a day I didn't shop for anything. I guarantee when I have the cash, though, I will support small and local businesses on any day of the week.
Why not just discount for cash, year-round? Accept whatever boost in traffic the promo campaign brings this weekend, and steer *all* customers away from paying processing fees?
1.) Because customers complain when you do this. It’s annoying to my team to explain why we do it.
2.) Because it advertises carrying a lot of cash (safety).
3.) Because I don’t want to discount for reasons that aren’t fun and rewarding for customers, like loyalty and marketing that drives sales of things I’m trying to liquidate.
The way one local, employee-owned supermarket chain handles this is by taking debit cards but not credit cards. Though I imagine they do end up handling more cash, too, as a result of this policy.
Accepting only debit is a significant challenge for most small businesses because of the merchant agreements that bundle all cards together. Winco is big enough to negotiate a merchant processing agreement that suits their business needs.
What are your preferred methods of payment? Visa? debit? cash? Venmo? what cards have lower merchant fees?
fwiw I’ve been trying to pay with cash at mom-and-pop shops and often the response is “no I don’t care that’s fine” because I think the counter help doesn’t like handling cash. What do?
Thanks for giving consumers a peek behind the curtain. There's a rant in me somewhere about this SCOTUS helping to kill competition but I won't clog your comment section. Thanks again for an illuminating read.
Fascinating! Thanks so much for shining a light on this. Hubby and I run a CPG business just us and it’s hard AF. Grateful to find you on here!
Wow! I never knew any of this. I have an AMEX and it's my primary card due to rewards. I put all of my gas and groceries and drug co-pays on there and pay the bill at the end of the month so I can maximize my rewards. However, I've had quite a few small business refuse to accept it, saying they don't take AMEX. I always thought stores were allowed to choose what cards they accept.
So grateful I stumbled upon this post. I appreciate how my friends are so enthusiastic about supporting small businesses, but I remember how uncomfortable I felt when I was around when the whole concept of small business Saturday rolled around. I just hope, like you said, that folks support small business year-round.
I've read about this but thanks for sharing it from 'street level' perspective. It really is eye-opening!
I wish consumers realized that all those great perks like airmile points and discounts at places like LL Bean don't come from the generosity of the credit card company. They come from the various stores that accept your credit card. The greater the perks, the more the store owner has to pay from the purchase.
I worked at a small retail shop for many years and saw the monthly statements from the credit card processor. Some fancy perks Visa cards had processing fees (also called discount rates) over 5% for the transaction. Amex wasn't the worst by far.
They were going to feature a company for which I was CFO in their small business ad campaign. The company I worked for was a $40 million company with 2 million customers. Not my definition of small business.
🙄 And it’s not just Amex! That broad definition of “small” makes it impossible to analyze what’s happening for businesses with, say, fewer than 10 employees. Does the S in SBA really stand for small, either?
I am trying to find your store on Instagram…link? This was interesting!
Oh hey it’s @thefernseed on Instagram. https://www.instagram.com/thefernseed/profilecard/?igsh=YmtyZTdwcmt1OHlo
Thanks, I just followed you!
Thank you for bringing awareness to what Small Business Saturday communicates to the small business owner. I'm disappointed about AmEx. I don't have an AmEx card, so that's good info for the future.
My dad owns a business that provides a service repairing electric motors, and I promise you he won't work on a Saturday, anyway. His loyal customers come to him when they need him, not when the internet tells them to suddenly start supporting his business. I appreciate hearing this on Saturday, a day I didn't shop for anything. I guarantee when I have the cash, though, I will support small and local businesses on any day of the week.
I didn’t know! Thank you for the education.
I have no idea about that history. Thanks for sharing!
Why not just discount for cash, year-round? Accept whatever boost in traffic the promo campaign brings this weekend, and steer *all* customers away from paying processing fees?
https://fitsmallbusiness.com/what-is-cash-discounting/
1.) Because customers complain when you do this. It’s annoying to my team to explain why we do it.
2.) Because it advertises carrying a lot of cash (safety).
3.) Because I don’t want to discount for reasons that aren’t fun and rewarding for customers, like loyalty and marketing that drives sales of things I’m trying to liquidate.
The way one local, employee-owned supermarket chain handles this is by taking debit cards but not credit cards. Though I imagine they do end up handling more cash, too, as a result of this policy.
Accepting only debit is a significant challenge for most small businesses because of the merchant agreements that bundle all cards together. Winco is big enough to negotiate a merchant processing agreement that suits their business needs.
I had no idea!
We celebrate small businesses every day, as often as we can.
What are your preferred methods of payment? Visa? debit? cash? Venmo? what cards have lower merchant fees?
fwiw I’ve been trying to pay with cash at mom-and-pop shops and often the response is “no I don’t care that’s fine” because I think the counter help doesn’t like handling cash. What do?
The wealthy will co-opt anything they think will advance their bottom line.