We now return to Progressive Ruin, which is already in progress(ive ruin).

§ July 21st, 2015 § Filed under retailing § 5 Comments

Sorry I missed Monday…was too beat Sunday evening to work my little typin’ fingers.

Anyway, judging by the response to this post, most comic shops do carry credit cards (with one or two minor exceptions). That’s good to know, though I’ll tell you, over the weekend I had several more “do you take cards?” inquiries. Maybe I need to start asking these folks if they’d been to comic shops that didn’t sometime recently…or maybe they hadn’t been in a comic shop in 30 years. Who knows?

Walaka asks:

“On a related note, aren’t most of them debit cards now, or are folks actually putting comics on credit?”

It’s a pretty good mix of both, I think…people paying for their comics directly out of their checking account, or (hopefully) paying off their credit cards at the end of the month. I think it leans heavier towards debit cards, if I think about it.

That Augie De Blieck Jr. character wonders:

“There used to be a law against minimum credit card purchases. Not sure if that was a state or federal law, but it seems to have slipped away over the years. Either it changes, or so many businesses started to ignore it that it wouldn’t matter.”

There wasn’t a law as such, I think*, though the merchant agreements from the various cards prohibited setting minimum purchases. Though, as is implied in your statement, enforcement was a little lax. And eventually, a law was passed allowing minimum purchase limited, so long as it wasn’t more than $10, and as long as it was applied solely to credit cards. You still can’t put minimum purchase limits on debit cards. Here’s one place where the law is discussed.

*A CAVEAT: I could have sworn California did have some kind of law on the books preventing minimum credit card purchases at one point, but my brief Googling about didn’t turn it up. Though it doesn’t matter now, as per above.

Jim Kosmicki relates:

“…Saw a note taped near the cashbox/register stating that there would be no more loans made from the cash register.”

EGADS. I’m assuming that was for the employees. Just trying to picture customers walking in and asking “hey, can I borrow five bucks? I’ll pay you back next week!”

Will H queries:

“But who still takes checks?”

I do! Well, mostly it’s just from one fellow, and it’s a guy I’ve had as a customer for 20+ years, so I figure his checks are probably okay. Aside from him, I’ve probably only had…two or three other people write checks to me? Not a common payment method nowadays, though as I related to someone on the Twitters the other day, as a business owner I still write a few checks, for rent and utilities and such.

This reminds me of a customer we had at my previous place of employment who always paid with a check. That wasn’t unusual, except the only personal information he had on his check was his name. No phone number, no address, no driver’s license number, nuthin’. And he invariably made purchases in the hundreds of dollars, breaking a thousand bucks at least once in my memory. The first time I dealt with him at the register, I was about to get his ID and my old boss waved it off, saying “he’s fine, don’t worry about it,” implying a relationship that preexisted my employment. And sure enough, for the rest of the years I was there, and with all the checks the guy wrote us, every single one was good. Plus, in later years I got to tell other employees “yeah, his check’s good, don’t sweat it” and have them give me the same look I probably gave Ralph all those years ago.

Former Employee Nathan tells us:

“I *do* get asked pretty often ‘Do you accept cards?,’ but that’s very likely a regional tic, as [San Francisco] has a rather large number of cash-only restaurants and specialty retail stores.”

Huh, that’s a good point, given your location. I’m pretty sure that’s not what’s going on here, unless the bar down the road is cash only and I’m getting lots of traffic from there.

Brad smashes Big Brother with:

“Sure, but do you take Apple Pay?”

I’ll trade comics for iPhones and iPads, sure.

• • •

So long to Alan Kupperberg, who passed away at the too-young age of 62. That man wrote and drew one of my all-time favorite oddball Marvel comics, and bless him for it.

5 Responses to “We now return to Progressive Ruin, which is already in progress(ive ruin).”

  • Thom H. says:

    Do you have a sticker(s) on your door displaying which credit cards you accept? Sometimes I look for that if I’m not sure a store I’m in takes credit cards. Just a thought.

  • Wayne Allen Sallee says:

    I was going to mention the same thing as Thom. I think the stickers work best because they will say if you accept, say American Express, Discover, or Bank Americard (am I showing my age? I remember a sign like that.)

  • Mikester says:

    Thom & Wayne – Yes, I have the stickers in the window right next to the front door. The problem is that 90% of the time, people don’t look at signs in the window (EXCEPTION: when you’re open but you accidentally left the CLOSED sign up, then EVERYONE sees the sign in the window.)

  • Corey says:

    I work in a comic store in Houston. I once had a customer ask me if we accepted cash. CASH. I swear I am not making that up.

  • DavidG says:

    Do American cheques (note correct spelling) really have people’ s addresses and phone numbers on them? Here in Australia they just have your name ( and the address of the bank etc – it’s not just a piece of paper with a name and some numbers on it). I don’t think I have ever seen a cheque with more details than that.