pushback

Yeah, I suppose you're right on target. All those folks would probably be sitting on the front steps on their double-wide, spitting and picking things that ought not to be picked in public. Or on meth, getting SSI and having their teeth fall out. Walmart really is doing these poor, uneducated slobs a favor by even giving them the time of day. What was I thinking?

Oh yeah.

I remember what I was thinking.

I was thinking about how if these people were not working at Walmart, perhaps they would be working at local stores that keep the money in the local economy instead of having Walmart suck small towns dry and send all the cash from Mayberry to Bentonville. I guess I was thinking how those people would have other places to work because Walmart had not run smaller, independent shops out of town by dumping cheap garbage made by kids in China and other countries. Kids who make less in a year than you likely make in an hour--and under some pretty deplorable conditions. Yeah—that’s the other side of the world. Who cares, right? Picture for just a millisecond, your kids doing that.

Maybe I was thinking about the impact of Walmart's push for RFID. Walmart is one of the champions spearheading RFID and it will put people out of a job all the way up the supply chain--not to mention all the privacy issues surrounding that technology. Think of them when you get your next passport, because it will likley have an RFID chip in so you can walk through the airport like a blinking beacon--in large part because Walmark pushed that technology. (alientechnology.com/spychips.com)

Or maybe I was thinking about how these poor sap suckers who are working at Walmart maybe had real jobs with real contentment working in toy stores on main street in their community--or maybe in the hardware store that closed down ten years ago. Places where the wooden floors creaked when you walked in them, things that you could buy to build something in your backyard hung from the walls and the ceiling in a dimly light hardware store--instead of 600 cameras hanging from the ceiling in a offensively lighted Walmart--so that your every move could be watched from behind a smoked Plexiglas hemisphere.

Oh yeah--and how the store owner knew your name ... and knew your kids, and never asked for ID, and paid a reasonable wage to his/her employees.

The nearest choo-choo train store that I can take my daughter to is 50 or so miles away. We make the pilgrimage ever year at Christmas and buy one new car for the train set that goes 'round the tree.

There used to such a store here in town.

They are building another Walmart 50 miles away.

You know what’s fun to do? Go on Walmart.com and click on “store finder”. (Bottom left). Now type in a random zip code (no fair looking for the most isolated spot in Iowa). I have done this many times and I have yet to find a zip code that does not show at least 9 Walmarts within 50 miles.

Walmart is not the American ideology. Walmart (and other big box stores) have destroyed the American ideology. The country is being sold from under us by Walmart and others like Walmart. But I guess that's ok.

Yeah--you're right. I'm such an idiot. I'll go hang out on the steps of my double-wide now since I'm not executive material and all.

Oh yeah--and they demand to see my ID when I use my credit card. (Just trying to keep the discussion on track).

pushback

Home Depot pulled this one on me tonight--for a $2.18 purchase.

pushback

These URLs no longer work. Does anyone know where they have moved the policy to?

Counsellor

A friend of mine grew up in what some call a "blighted" neighborhood, right next to one of those "local stores". He reports that the owner sold rotting produce at high prices to the folks who shopped there (because they didn't have alternatives nearby), and "hired" his extended family rather than spending some of his profits on the customers he got them from.

Then a Wal-Mart opened in the vicinity, and sold fresh healthy produce (and other food) at lower prices, and hired folks from the neighborhood to stock shelves, run cashier lines, and be greeters.

There was many a dry eye when the "local store" closed.

Oh yeah--and none of the Wal-Marts I patronize has never demanded to see my ID when I use my credit card. (Just trying to keep the discussion on track).

canuck_in_pa

I started complaining to MasterCard whenever someone asks for ID:

http://www.mastercard.com/us/persona...iolations.html

Not sure if it does any good though, especially with the big chains.

pushback

There are exceptions to everything.

drbond

I have had some fun with this one for awhile now. When someone asks for my id, I say "it's signed". They look and sometimes, ask "can I still see your id" I say no. It has only went further than that once and that is when I explain that it is a violation of their merchant agreement to require an ID unless it is not signed.

KVS

See updated FAQ at http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showt...62#post7519362

chichow

Are you sure there isn't some State dependencies?

E.g. in Nevada, I ALWAYS get asked for my ID.

pushback

It's not a legal thing--so what state you are in is irrelevant. Its a Visa/MC thing. That's the policy. Don't follow the policy and you run the risk of not being able to accept these cards.

chichow

Can the merchant just refuse to take the payment via card then? Saying they will not process the transaction?

I am asking both from a legal and a practical standpoint.

I can complain all I want to Visa/MC later on, but in the meantime I just won't get my goods/services.

Its hard to argue with some tellers and it doesn't help when they ask you for your zip code and you refuse and they start looking at you funny.

chichow

And not to derail this entirely, but at many gas stations they ask that you enter in the zip code of the credit card as part of the pre-auth. Is this legal?

pushback

The merchant can do what the merchant wants, but refusing the accept your card because you will not produce ID is a violation of their merchant agreement and the merchant can lose their ability to accept the cards by having their agreement cancelled by Visa. I have complained to Visa in the past and they have sent warning letters to merchants, who, in turn, changed their practice.

You mentioned tellers. The rules may be different for taking a cash advance from a bank--I don't know.

canuck_in_pa

I have to enter my zip code at Wal-Marts in PA when I use my Amex. I don't have to when I use a Visa or MC so I guess it depends mostly on the card network and the agreement with the merchant (and possibly the state laws).

Happy

That if the card is stolen, the thieves would not know the proper zip code to enter.

I read something about it in local newspaper a while back. The measure was intruduced after some car hi-jack/murder cases - the criminals used the victims cards crossing several states - the clues led police traced the criminals footsteps and finally caught them. From those cases, supposedly, the zip code entry is being invented to prevent fraudulent usages, in the general pattern that using stolen cards at gas pumps tend to be the first few usages of a stolen card (test water).