RedSun

No wonder so many places have dried up. So many novices, high rollers and heavy hitters all together....

craz

That would be dumb, after all Ive gone to a store just as it opened on a Sun (1st day of the promo) and low and behold not 1 VGC or MC even in the reserve area. Samething when going to a supermkt when its gas pts week. I simply get in my car and head to another store

Does Staples give a rain check on GCs? Im sure over time as the computers will show that stores sold more then 1 per transaction and more then 1 at a time to the same CC that they will tighten up on things. Got to remember its not the same corp owners as yrs ago and these guys not only want their $$ back ASAP but along with a profit. On the other side of the coin just as Amex has shut down any earnings from Simon, Chase could do the same with Staples

craz

?? I saw plenty of cards on the rack where they limited it to 1 per person. I found the cupboard bare many times when they sold 2K per transaction and didnt care if you came back a couple of hours later for round 2

And if the stores reap it next time alot of folks simply wont go back a 3rd time, just not worth it time and gas wise

radonc1

Yup
My 1 card only per day store has lots of $200 VGCs on the rack. The last time they did this promotion without limits, the rack was bare by Wednesday.
My other stores allow me to buy my self imposed limit of 8 cards without question, but I suspect that being in the boonies, there is not much competition for cards. However, their racks are more depleted than the 1 card a day store.

I also liquidate over weeks and never more than $800 once or twice a week in the same store. I am very happy to fly under the radar.

glenn___ebooks

Has everyone ever figured out why they do these deals and why they limit? I always assumed it was as no/small profit way to get people into the store who would then buy other profitable things but:
1. They sometimes don't even advertise these deals in the flyer (or is that oD/OM)?
2. who wants a random $200 VGC? I guess I don't understand how "normal" people would even use them, with the exception of those who for some reason cannot get a bank account and need to have a credit card number, but I really doubt that's who's buying these.

radonc1

There are many people out there that want to gift but don't want to shop, wrap and go through the hassle that is gift giving. It is far easier to give a gift card than shop for a gift. And many will consider paying a few dollars for the convenience a blessing. (and GCs come in many different sizes, not just $200).

The reason one has a sale is to lure people into the store, so that expensive ordinary merchandise can be purchased. While many on this thread would never consider buying at retail in an OD or Staples, most "normal" people will think that paying the extra dollar for a ream of paper is worth not getting in a car and traveling 3 miles up the road to some other site for such savings.

glenn___ebooks

Haha, you're right - I wasn't thinking as clearly about the "gift" part of gift card, though in my personal experience that usually comes in store versions. I've never received, sent or even heard of prepaid gift cards being used as gifts with the 1 exception of a work retreat where they were given as prizes (AMEX $25 cards with I'm sure a $6 activation fee...what a waste).

Of course that's why stores do sales; I guess I'm just wondering if that's the kind of thing that actually DOES get people in to buy other products, in comparison to a grocery store discounting apples and then you buy other produce. But evidently Staples believes it does since they keep doing these promos and I can't think of any other reason for these constant sales.

DeltaNeutral28

The amount of these $200 VGC's that get sold to non MSer's has got to be below 10%. They sell (up to) $500 VGCs in nearly every grocery store for less than the fee that Staples and OD charge for $200's. The nice thing that doesn't get enough acknowledgement is the $300's are on the website for $8.95 and you can buy up to $1,800 in one purchase. Depending on your method of time/cost to MS it's still a very good deal (Cost on a $300 is still $0.006ish per UR for me) if you can at least turn around and use the CSR for portal redemption at 0.015x.

craz

at least in regards to supermkts and other stores, its not only the store(chain) that eats it but the company behind the product as well, eg if theres a sale on Coke dont expect that the strore is absorbing it all, Coke will be contributing as well or in whole

In our case could be Visa, Metabank are also chipping in, hoping the nxxt time the person will be dumb and actu

In the end who is paying doesnt concern me all I care about is not having to pay the $6.95 although its not a total loss if I hav eto compared to oether cards, when you take into acct your net gainally pay the $6.95 for the card w/o factoring in any benefits like we do. also the company placing the racks and choosing what to put on them, not every store has the exact same cards

radonc1

My company uses gift cards for employee incentives on a yearly basis. And I will tell you that when you buy in bulk as a company, the $25 GCs (Visa or Amex) are really pennies, not dollars in cost.
And since Simon has this set up for companies, I imagine that they do a pretty good business in legitimate GC business.
(and I haven't heard of anyone complaining about getting one )

glenn___ebooks

really? why? I just assumed the only people who used gift cards as any sort of payment for anything would be those who are, at least in part, fleecing low income folks. Like McDonald's paying its employees in gift cards, selling plasma and getting the money loaded onto a GC as card - basically a scam to try to cut down on payroll/processing and hope people pay fees. But that's reloadable so it isn't even the same. Anyway, I digress, we aren't even talking about Staples now. But this has been very informative.

alanisrox69

1. these gift cards are loss leader in a way for the store. Come in to buy fee free $200 gc and you may walk out with a $8.99 ream of paper that is 90% profit.
2. gift cards, the way we use them, is not the way 98% of regular people use them. They may use them once or twice spending most, but not all, of the gift card value. After some point in time (such as when the card expires) Blackhawk can "cash" in that money. If and when an end user comes to claim that money back, they're going to need receipts, the card, proof etc etc which they probably will never follow thru on. Blarkhawk just netted leftover unused balance. Gift cards in general are a huge money maker for the companies that put them out, solely based on un-used and/or lost cards. The company pockets that money. There was a study done that millions of dollars of purchased gift cards go unused. Some debit gift cards even have a service/dormant fee after 6 months of purchase. So, again, money in company pocket.

craz

Im guilty of throwing away cards with money still left on it, I guess comes 2025 - 2027 Meta or whomever will simply add it to their profits, till then I guess they have to keep the card active on their computers taking up space

In some cases when the fee for a MO is <$1 I try to avoid using up the full amount and thusly money is left on the card 1 cent that is, when the fee is exactly $1 no money is left over. When its < $1 I do 1 MO where 1 cent is left the other MO usually leaves over 10 cents on a card and that I use at my local supermkt where it gets drained w/o a problem. From this past weds run I have just under $2 left and will be used on Sun

alanisrox69

I use every cent. The cards auto drain at my local grocery store, I just go thru SCO (when buying groceries) and swipe a bunch of cards in succession. 12 cents a swipe, I don't care. That's 12 of my cents!

tuphat