We might have an unhappy candy shop owner
September 28th, 2006 | by mbhunter |It isn’t big things that get a burr in my side. It’s the little petty things that bug me. (Likely a personal fault, like being a night owl.)
I’m sure that you’ve walked into a shop that has a sign next to the cash register something like “Minimum of $5 for credit card purchases.” The reasoning for this, from the merchant’s standpoint, is that the credit card fee eats up too big a chunk of small purchases, so they impose minimum credit card charge amounts.
Big no-no. This is in direct violation of Visa’s merchant agreement. If credit cards are accepted at a location, they must be accepted for any, and all, purchases from that location. Even if the purchase costs a penny! Even if it cuts substantially into the merchant’s profit. In most cases it’s greedy on the part of the merchant; stores typically more than recoup the costs of the credit card transactions through more, and larger, purchases from the customers. So cutting out the unprofitable transactions is attempting to have your cake and eat it, too.
Which brings me to my encounter with a candy shop called Caterina’s at Ontario (California) International Airport. I had a hankering for chocolate-covered espresso beans. I put about $3.50 worth in a bag and went to pay with my credit card. The cashier informed me that there was a $10 minimum for credit card purchases, and wouldn’t accept my credit card. I protested. (Again, petty on my part maybe, but I knew I was right on this one!) I informed the cashier that the owner was violating her merchant agreement with Visa. The cashier said that the owner knew this and that she couldn’t afford to have the fees taken out on small purchases. (As much as airport shops marks things up, I find this very hard to believe!) She ended the conversation by saying that she couldn’t take my card. (Well, actually, yes she could, but she likes her job more than she likes having a satisfied customer!)
So I called up Visa and started a complaint against the merchant. We’ll see what happens. 
9 Responses to “We might have an unhappy candy shop owner”
By ~Dawn on Sep 28, 2006 | Reply
I am interested in the outcome on this, I am considering notifying other stores I have gone to tat do this
By fivecentnickel.com on Sep 28, 2006 | Reply
Good for you. I’m all about making merchants live up to their obligations.
By Ervin J on Sep 28, 2006 | Reply
I can understand when a little mom&pop store has problems with credit card payments for small purchases, but I wouldn’t accept it from an overpriced airport shop, either.
So, in this case, good for you!
By Curtis on Sep 28, 2006 | Reply
I had a similar thing happen at a pizza shop — my order came to $9+ and the cashier told me I couldn’t use my card to pay for a purchase less than $10. I’d been there before and liked the place, so I threw in a bag of chips (closest, cheapest thing I could find) to push it over the limit.
That said, I would be ticked too if all I wanted was a bag of candy and a merchant told me I couldn’t buy it because I didn’t meet some arbitrary limit. That’s stupid. Good job for fightin’ back!
By denon on Oct 4, 2006 | Reply
Don’t fight back against the merchant – the only thing that’ll accomplish is convince the merchant to go to cash-based sales. As a business owner, I’m well aware of both sides. I also know that when a store doesn’t take CCs at all, the consumer rarely minds – they just break out some cash or a checkbook. This depends on the type of store, of course.
Who you want to “fight back” against, is VISA. Tell them their demands are unreasonable to merchants, and tell them to offer better rates through their processing houses. Lower processing fees benefits the merchant AND the consumer.
The *only* people who benefit from higher fees are processors and VISA.
By denon on Oct 4, 2006 | Reply
Another note to my post above. If you try to force the merchant’s hand, they’ll simply put another minimum in place – ie: minimum purchase 10lbs of candy. Do you really want them to force you to spend $10 in their store, just so you can get your citi bonus points?
By Jonathan on Oct 5, 2006 | Reply
Shrug, as long as it’s reasonable and clearly marked somewhere (i.e. before I try to buy something), I don’t really mind. I see their point. Of course Visa doesn’t allow minimums, that would leave less fees for them.
If it’s after I sit down for a meal and my only choices are to buy more food, then I’d be annoyed.
Have you seen the rent that an airport charges it’s businesses? Chances are that is a small biz, just with high rent and matching high prices to pay for it.
Of course, I’ve also bought a Snickers bar on a credit card in an airport store before…
By Sandy on Sep 10, 2007 | Reply
Hi!
Yeah! That´s great! I worked for Caterina´s at LAX and there it is the same. The owner (***EDITED MBHUNTER***) is a jerk! She really puts preasure on her staff to get as much money out of the stores as possible! Actually I´ve got fired for taking a christmas holiday – although I had all my shifts covered by co-workers who needed the money from extra shifts! So there was no real reason for fireing me…
So I hope VISA presses a big charge on them!
So long,
Sandy