A small distinction that makes a big difference. “Debit” transactions (called PIN transactions) are WAY less secure than “credit” transactions (called signature transactions).
There’s such a thing as customer satisfaction too, and I just don’t care to shop where they won’t take my card. Costco manages to treat employees well, keep prices low, AND accept my AMEX. They get my business.
The ‘private’ company is WinCo Foods Employee Stock Ownership Trust. So yes, it is privately held, by the employees.
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Yes, “marked up” was the wrong turn of phrase. I really should have talked about profit margins.
Yeah, but you have to realize that if 10% of their profit is going to pay for your ability to use that AMEX then they will never have as low prices as a competitor that decides not to pay that 10%. All of us are walking around willingly paying a tax to credit card companies on everything we buy, whether we pay with credit cards or not. I’m not arguing about whether it is worth paying for or not, simply pointing out that we are paying for it.
Would that still be the case if Chip and PIN was finally adopted in the US?
And Costco piss me off because they only accept AmEx.
Well, for an opposite view, I do have a WinCo that opened up near my house, and I don’t care for it due to what I perceive as it’s lack of variety (in brands for an item, perhaps less so in items). That is to say, my perception is they may carry the type of item I’m looking for, but not in the brand(s) I prefer.
I also am not a fan of their size, in that the parking lot it huge and always full, but this indicates I’m an aberration, and they are doing a nice business.
My main knock against them is my preferred store, Top Food (a.k.a. Haggen), closed down as a direct result of their opening up and pulling away their business. The market at work, but with negative results for me. I now mainly go to the nearby Safeway.
Good to know that they are employee owned, and about their bulk foods/produce. Perhaps I’ll give those areas a second look.
Yeah, this is one of the things that bug me and makes me doubt when people suggest that the free market is the solution to all social problems… because the free market isn’t a free market of informed and empowered consumers choosing the best product for the fairest price in a world full of competition… it’s a market full of entrenched bullies who will use that power to knock out any new competition, even if it’s a superior product or service at a better price. IMHO, an “exclusivity agreement” should be outright illegal and anybody who tries to skirt it gets broken up. You can have a “sell to me first before filling other orders” agreement, but if a company makes more stock than you are willing to buy, they should always have a right to sell it somewhere else, and no contract should be able to take that right away, just like two people can’t negotiate a contract that sends one of them into slavery.
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Not to go off topic (that is, I am about to go very off topic) but I’d just like to interject and point out that probably the reason you feel that the free market isn’t a good solution to problems is because it doesn’t solve any problems at all. We have huge employment and crumbling infrastructure, in other words, lots of people who want to work and lots of work to do. It takes the free market to keep it from getting done.
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Because they have negotiated with AMEX to make it possible.
And yet they do have pricing competitive with those people…
We all pay for lots of conveniences. Electricity, indoor plumbing, telephones–all not strictly NECESSARY. Why is this particular convenience a difficulty for you?
I assume it’s much reduced rates in return for exclusivity, but I don’t want multiple CCs, and if I have only one it won’t be ‘Not Accepted Anywhere’ AMEX.
And I don’t want to carry cash and won’t do business with retailers who will not accept credit cards. Why is your “choice” valid and mine not?
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The problem is the free market. It can never work. Full stop.
The answer is not to disallow people from making contracts you don’t like.
We disallow people from making contracts we don’t like all the time.
To suggest we shouldn’t is basically endorsing the unfettered free market’s ability to do anything it wants, and as you agree, that doesn’t work.
So, what is the answer then?
You must be confusing me with someone else. I never told you to use cash. I never do.
I was just venting about Costco’s restrictive CC policies. I’m all for as many payment options as possible.
If small retailers can’t eat the CC fees, they should add them to the cost at the checkout.
am/pm have lost my business forever because I needed to fill up while traveling for work and they wouldn’t take my company credit card, which I didn’t know until after I filled up.
I believe the discussion was that Winco doesn’t accept credit cards. As I have said, they will never get my business because of it. Costco does. I go out of my way to shop there.
I can buy stamps at my local HyVee as well. So what?
In the US you are not allowed to pick and choose which individual cards you accept. If you accept Visa, you must accept ALL Visa cards. It’s written in to your merchant agreement.
