jyx

I wonder what cc everyone is using to buy beans at CVS. Is some card out there to earn more than 1x at pharmacy stores?

ma91pmh

ok it's the famous people of "some" (who presumable live "somewhere") followed by a bunch of "suppose", "if" and "doubt". in other words utter speculation

i am first to admit that i do not know who wins and loses in this game. it's a well guarded secret. but i am certainly not going to start making crap up and posting it as "fairly well established" fact the way you do.

ma91pmh

many of us are using the Citi TYP 5x that is now pretty hard to get. everyone else is just using a mix bag... i've heard of us flexperks, barclays arrive, spg, chase, fidelity amex cash back etc

if we want to get into the pure speculation about who wins or loses though the question of which card is used i think is quite telling. i found it telling that when officedepot sold vr's it got shutdown and that is because everybody was using the same chase cards. the entire spend was concentrated in one issuer and their ink series of cards. one issuer was definitely losing out as they were paying 5x on all the spend. i have seen hints from bloggers who are high up the food chain with chase that the pressure on office depot came from chase. now at cvs with the spend spread out over several different issuers and product lines, and most of those only paying 1x or 2x, the issuers are not likely getting burned as badly as chase was. and lo and behold rather than shut it down, cvs actually turn the taps up. coincidence? absolutely possible

the other area where we know shutdowns occur are with the card providers. we all know of the netspend, mio and mvd shutdowns. in fact the only one that doesn't get shutdown is bluebird, run by the giant amex who can afford to subsidize the loss in much the same way amazon payments seems to be willing to subsidize a loss up to a certain monthly limit (thank goodness amex let us do $5k instead of the more miserly $1k). now i am getting much more speculative but kind of suggests that the card providers are actually losing money. but if you load the card and then unload it, if they are getting 100 cents on the dollar in theory it should just be neutral for them. so why shutdown? it is of course quite possible they don't get 100 cents on the dollar. maybe they get 90 or 95 or 98. and they have to pay out 100 when you unload. so if you do too much without them getting all the other big offsetting fees they thought they'd get, they shut you down. if we were revenue neutral to them i don't think we'd see swiping shutdowns. but we do, and that suggests to me we are costing them $$$s

so in my opinion -not established fact by any means - the losers are the card issuers paying high multipliers on spend and the prepaid debit card issuers who i think are getting less than face value. and i suspect the stores are making a profit or at least breaking even

shingu79

Sell them back to the VR company

shingu79

Ummm....okay, but take a look at this chart and see if CVS is REALLY losing money...

http://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=C...rce=undefined;

For the past year, from the mid 40s to high 50s/low 60s...their stock is doing A OKAY.
Maybe the VR sales is adding to the "revenue" in a huge way...

KYBOSH

What does their stock price have to do with whether or not they are making a profit on ONE of the tens of thousands of items they sell?

vagrants

Ammm...to conclude "if CVS is REALLY losing money..." stock value is technically not what you want to look. Yes, it should reflect the "earning", but looking @ the earning itself is better to conclude that. However, it's really difficult to tell the "margin" of PrePaids/Reloads from the overall picture.

3ZeroT

I made that conclusion based on multiple independent reports that also seem backed up by common sense and math. I don't know anything for 100% fact but I wouldn't call it 'making crap up'.

3ZeroT

Even if CVS lost a couple bucks per VR (paid with CC), maybe the churner buys other overpriced items while he's in there or better yet transfers prescriptions over for added convenience. Maybe in the end selling VRs to that person causes a net profit. I just can't believe that happens very much in reality.

PaulMSN

Or maybe they make a profit on VRs. I don't know, you don't know. You're positing speculation as fact.

craz

Use whatever works for you, even at 1x the total in fees for a Biz tkt to Europe or Asia s/b < $1000

I could be wrong but I believe if a person tried doing that on a new CC or 1 that they havent been using heavy till now, they just might be shut down.Especially with Citi

vagrants

It's somehow working for CVS unlike the OD. If not, they would disappear from shelves or put constraint of Cash-Only. I don't know why they don't get the CC frauds as the OD (believed reason for not letting people buy variables of any kind with CCs) did...

shingu79

Well basically, stock price DOES matter.

A company's stock is driven by earnings and profitability, mostly...
Yes, it's one of 10,000 items they stock, but it's one of the HIGHER value commodity compared to the other 10,000 items...Sure there are other medicines that cost just as much, but I'm sure they are kept to small percentage.

My idea is that if the company sees that one of their higher price item is not turning a profit, and for them to increase the saleability from their usual $1k limit to $5k limit, it doesn't make sense...to the board of directors, to their shareholders, etc...unless someone up high just wants to "inflate" earnings...

Well, it was just for a fun speculation...but I'm SURE they make money somehow.

craz

For the 1st time today,I was shut out from buying a 2nd VR using a different CC. She said its only 1 transaction per day and she doesnt want to lose her job. I had a few words with her (not my reg location) and said if its due to fraud, well Corp says $5k is the max per day, 2nd you didnt check not only my CC for the last 4 digits but you never asked to see my ID. So dont give me this line its your job to pervent fraud and the company is relying on you, and finally you never handed me my receipt. She just stared as I walked away and had nothing to say

Im being to think if you arent accepted for a job at Wallys that Charlie will hire you. Man can these folks dream up some lines out of thin air that has no substance to it whatsoever

btw I simply drove 4 mins on the same street to another store to get what I wanted anyway, while there picked up what is my 3rd although I only wanted 2 to begin with

vagrants

Yes, up to a point. How do you know the PrePaid/Reloads margin? I don't think you play stocks.