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Education

The top six so far 5. Bars: Town bars that have been local institutions also are glad for the
pricing relief. Again, when they run their happy hour and charge $3 for a
Some business types are more likely beer and $6 for a mixed drink, they know they can't afford the processing
than others to be able to embrace fees. And after two drinks anyway, who looks at the bill?
cash discount programs. You won't
see this program at designer stores 6. Tailors/dry cleaners: I would never leave my tailor/dry cleaner. The
or department stores, but then again, owners have increased prices every year, but I trust them, and they do
they typically are not the businesses good work. Here, too, most of their business is repeat customers, and they
my MLS team tries to acquire. It will don't have a fear of losing their customer base.
take some time for the program to
be accepted across a wide range of We have also had some success with locksmiths, multiservice businesses and
merchants. At my ISO, the following newsstands. The program seems to work best in underserved communities and
businesses seem to be the top with smaller merchants. Yes, we have a couple of large burger/pizza locations,
contenders in our book of business: but in those cases, the owner of the chain just didn't care if a customer was
disturbed by the new pricing. His locations are generally always busy, and
1. Hair salons and barber shops: he said he wouldn't be able to tell if it affected his customer count. He knows
If you have a stylist you have saving $2,500 to $3,000 a month per location puts a Mercedes in his driveway.
been using, you are not going to
care if the shop has a 4 percent We have been seeing some interest from larger, more unique merchant types
cash adjustment fee. You want such as funeral homes, and kitchen remodelers. Additionally, if merchants
that stylist or colorist. currently do not take credit cards now, they should be low hanging fruit for a
2. Delis, bodegas, smaller gro- cash discount program.
cers: These business types typi- Steven Feldshuh, President of Merchants' Choice Payment Solutions East, has 18 years' experience
cally work on smaller margins, in sales and ISO development. Directly prior to joining MCPSE in 2012, he was President of Payment
have smaller tickets and welcome Partners. In his current position, Steven devotes the bulk of his time to assisting agents in building
the relief of having to pay only a
minimum amount on credit card their portfolios. Contact him by email at stevenf@mcpseast.com or by phone at 212-392-9202.
processing. We have not had any-
one convert back in this category.
3. Auto repair/auto body, trans-
mission shops: These business
owners seem to care little about
potential repercussions from
passing on a non-cash adjust-
ment. They are typically very
busy places with repeat business,
and if you have found an honest
shop for repairs, you are not, as a
rule, going anywhere else.
4. Cafes, coffee shops, fast food
spots, small restaurants: Here,
again, we have had no conversion
back to traditional processing.
These merchants all seem to be
on the same page. They gener-
ally get mostly repeat business,
and the program has given them
relief especially on the $5 or less
sales. Generally, customers stop
at a donut shop or coffee shop on
the way to work. They are not in-
clined to change their routine be-
cause they are now charged $4.16
versus $4 for their coffee each
morning, especially if switching
involves crossing a highway or
traveling further.

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