AMEX (Canada) Losing Shoppers Drug Mart

Old Nov 20, 2012, 5:04 pm
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AMEX (Canada) Losing Shoppers Drug Mart

Mentioned briefly as only a rumor on the Air Canada Aeroplan forum, my wife and I this afternoon asked the cashier at our nearby Shoppers Drug Mart if they were no longer accepting American Express (Canada) credit cards at their location. She confirmed that after December 1, 2012, SDM will no longer accept AMEX for purchases.

Just a heads up, for those of us who use this large drugstore chain up here.

bj-21.
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Old Nov 20, 2012, 5:16 pm
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That would stink. Any idea if this is chain-wide or dependant on the franchisee?
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Old Nov 20, 2012, 6:35 pm
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Originally Posted by stingray300
That would stink. Any idea if this is chain-wide or dependant on the franchisee?
Can't say with any certainty, but seeing that it was mentioned on several blogs and in the AC forum, I'm guessing (GUESSING ONLY!) that it may be chain wide. Not a good move IMO, but possibly because they recently introduced their own CC.

bj-21.
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Old Nov 20, 2012, 9:36 pm
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Well shoppers will def lose my business bc of this
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Old Nov 21, 2012, 9:57 am
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This is disappointing. I usually use my Amex at Shoppers. I wonder if this will also apply to the Canada Post outlets.

I think some feedback to SDM is warranted...will look for a link on the website.
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Old Nov 21, 2012, 4:31 pm
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this sucks

why are they doing that

Originally Posted by xray
This is disappointing. I usually use my Amex at Shoppers. I wonder if this will also apply to the Canada Post outlets.

I think some feedback to SDM is warranted...will look for a link on the website.
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Old Nov 21, 2012, 8:09 pm
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Originally Posted by xray
This is disappointing. I usually use my Amex at Shoppers. I wonder if this will also apply to the Canada Post outlets.

I think some feedback to SDM is warranted...will look for a link on the website.
I already gave them some feedback on their decision, on the survey that comes with the receipt we got from today's purchases. Several places in the survey where they asked for other comments had me saying that I thought it was a mistake to cut out AMEX after Dec. 1, and how they will lose some of our business because of that. And they will too, as Rexall still takes AMEX, and my wife has an Airmiles AMEX and can double up on some Airmiles offers with the frequent bonuses, or if I pay with my regular AMEX (and get MR's) she can still use her regular Airmiles card to get the miles. I don't really think that it will make a difference, nor do I think emailing them directly about our displeasure about losing AMEX (and the MR points) on the purchases will cause them to change their mind, but if there were a large enough outpouring of displeasure from the customers (which I don't think will happen) they might be forced to rethink the decision.

Someone mentioned in another thread on this that SDM didn't want to upgrade the point of sale readers (where you swipe or insert your card to be read) to a newer model to enable the pin code to be punched in, but we don't know if that's the reason for the change. Perhaps it's because SDM now has it's own credit card, or the new head of SDM is formerly from a large Canadian bank, or they just don't want the points competition for their Optima card (but you could still get AMEX MR points and Optima points on the same purchase, so probably not the latter), so we're just guessing the
reasoning here.

Nevertheless, not a very customer-friendly move, IMO.

bj-21.
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Old Nov 21, 2012, 10:43 pm
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Originally Posted by xray
This is disappointing. I usually use my Amex at Shoppers. I wonder if this will also apply to the Canada Post outlets.

I think some feedback to SDM is warranted...will look for a link on the website.
Canada Post tends to post as it's own merchant code.
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Old Nov 21, 2012, 11:10 pm
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Originally Posted by AA_EXP09
Canada Post tends to post as it's own merchant code.
Doesn't that depend on the location? At Shoppers they do. At Superstore I've made the experience that they show up as Superstore (and thery don't accept Amex).

Anyway, I'm moving my drug purchases to Sobey's and most of my drugstore purchases to Sobeys or Lawtons (both awarding Airmiles as well).

I might still take advantage of milk sales at Shoppers. :-) For some reason, the Shoppers closest to my home never partakes in these milk sales.

Shoppers already lost a lot of our business when they stopped accepting Shoppers Optimum membership numbers at the checkout. You now have to present the actual card, which I refuse to carry everywhere.
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Old Nov 22, 2012, 8:51 am
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Originally Posted by xray
I usually use my Amex at Shoppers. I wonder if this will also apply to the Canada Post outlets.
IIRC Canada Post never accepted Amex, they only take them for PIN changes.
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Old Nov 22, 2012, 10:43 am
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Never good to lose a merchant but Shoppers is an operation with really large markups so not to take Amex is just wrong. I can understand a small family restaurant or the super cheapo brands like Superstore but Shoppers? Hardly ever buy anything there so doesn't impact me personally.
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Old Nov 22, 2012, 11:24 am
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Originally Posted by Altaflyer
Shoppers is an operation with really large markups so not to take Amex is just wrong.
+1. Amex cardholders would seem like the perfect customer segment.

Hard not to think this is an RBC-driven strategy to push their expanded Optimum retail banking and card products, and the folks at SDM just aren't smart enough to realize how much business they can lose over this.
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Old Nov 22, 2012, 2:11 pm
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Originally Posted by stingray300
IIRC Canada Post never accepted Amex, they only take them for PIN changes.
Must be different in BC but in Ontario and MB, you can pay by Amex at Canada Post, both in outlets and at the actual post offices.
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Old Nov 22, 2012, 2:25 pm
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Considering SDM stopped playing Xmas music due to customer feedback, one never knows what we can accomplish with feedback.

I sent some feedback through their website and posted to the SDM Facebook page. The ironic thing is that their social media contact denied that they would be dropping Amex....despite the fact that several employees and customers posted in the thread that they had heard Amex was being dropped.

Also agree with the above posters that SDM is among the higher priced pharmacies so should be courting the Amex customer...
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Old Nov 22, 2012, 7:36 pm
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Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (BlackBerry; U; BlackBerry 9700; en-US) AppleWebKit/534.8+ (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/6.0.0.666 Mobile Safari/534.8+)

I told my GF about this and her first comment was: well I guess we're not shopping there anymore.

I'm very pleased how well she's taking to the world of points

Although we did like the double dip of Pharmaprix and Optimum points
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