Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Here's an idea . . .

I was out with a friend the other day and he asked if we could stop at a convenience store for cigarettes. It's his bad habit, not mine, but we stopped. After he got back into my car, he realized he didn't have a lighter, and the one in my car doesn't work, so he went back into the store to buy one. Since he was out of cash, he used his debit card for the $1 purchase, and the woman at the store proceeded to bitch him out, blaming him for single-handedly ruining the country and the economy.

OK, ignoring that fact that yelling at your customers probably doesn't encourage repeat business. . .I understand that the fixed cost plus percentage that the store had to pay on that transaction made it less than profitable. But what if they'd gone to Costco, bought a big box of matchbooks and offered one to each customer that bought a pack of cigarettes? Wow, customer service and no pesky merchant fees for those single lighter sales!