Smith's Food & Drug stopping Visa acceptance

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storewanderer
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Re: Smith's Food & Drug stopping Visa acceptance

Post by storewanderer »

Yes, I am surprised they are willing to try this in all of Smiths. There is a lot at stake with Smiths in Las Vegas and Salt Lake City where they have run quite a bit of capital expenditure recently (and so have competitors).

Ideal place where I would try this type of garbage No Visa Credit Card Policy: Dillons Division in Kansas. Dillons has largely "run away" from most of its competitors other than Wal Mart, after exiting the Springfield market and Kansas City suburbs a decade ago. Wichita does have a weak Whole Foods and Sprouts and Aldi but really Dillons has that market pretty tied up.

Kroger just keeps getting less and less customer friendly based on policies dictated down by the corporation. The stores still seem to be trying generally, at least from my ongoing viewpoint with Smiths in Reno and scattered other Kroger Divisions I've been to this year (I have a different opinion if you ask me about the FoodsCos in Sacramento and my opinion on King Soopers is also pretty borderline, but a lot of those midwest Kroger Divsions, Fred Meyer, and Frys definitely seem to be trying at the store level very hard as well). Kroger Corporate and what it dictates down to the divisions and stores reminds me more and more of Safeway 10-15 years ago. Complicated promotions, require use of app for discounts, things like this No Visa Credit in certain stores, their supposed self imposed "plastic bag ban" in 2025, Scan Bag Go that nobody wants to use and the reduction in actual checkstands down to numbers too low to keep lines from stretching down the aisles... I could go on and on; Kroger is just not being customer friendly like they used to be. It no longer seems to be "Customer First" - it seems to be whatever half baked idea the Kroger Corporate Office comes up with first. And frankly, they don't have many good ideas. Kroger was successful when the divisions had more control and came up with their own ideas, tried them, then shared ideas that worked with other divisions. I believe the retirements at division and corporate levels of very talented long term people and ongoing efforts to take control away from the divisions and centralize it more at the corporate office has really hurt Kroger the past few years and I do not see a reversal anytime soon.
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Re: Smith's Food & Drug stopping Visa acceptance

Post by J-Man »

Safeway tried the Cash Price / Credit Price at its gas stations in Arizona. Nobody else around here did it (and even ARCO has abandoned its backwards pricing scheme in this market). Safeway fuel centers gave up on the separate pricing about a year and a half ago (as people simply chose to go elsewhere without gimmicks).
Vons and Safeway in California used to give a discount on gas if you used your club card; now they have the cash/credit differential (usually 10 cents/gallon) so I don't buy gas there anymore. Kroger-connected gas stations (Ralphs and Food4Less) still give the same price for cash or credit. As do Sam's Club and Costco.
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Re: Smith's Food & Drug stopping Visa acceptance

Post by SamSpade »

My aunt was visiting my grandmother in Idaho and as my grandmother has macular degeneration, she isn't doing much herself these days...
Anyway, they do almost all her grocery shopping at Smith's because my grandmother is very brand and product sensitive, to a point where it is just easier to go where you expect to find things.

Family members were charging groceries to a VISA credit card. Needless to say this was a large topic of conversation between both aunts here and my mother there. It appears the 'solution' has been to apply for the 1-2-3 Rewards Mastercard and maybe that's what Kroger is shooting for in this decision. :?

They thought it was a bit strange that they could go to the Fred Meyer a few miles away and still pay using Visa though.
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Re: Smith's Food & Drug stopping Visa acceptance

Post by storewanderer »

SamSpade wrote: April 29th, 2019, 9:03 am My aunt was visiting my grandmother in Idaho and as my grandmother has macular degeneration, she isn't doing much herself these days...
Anyway, they do almost all her grocery shopping at Smith's because my grandmother is very brand and product sensitive, to a point where it is just easier to go where you expect to find things.

Family members were charging groceries to a VISA credit card. Needless to say this was a large topic of conversation between both aunts here and my mother there. It appears the 'solution' has been to apply for the 1-2-3 Rewards Mastercard and maybe that's what Kroger is shooting for in this decision. :?

They thought it was a bit strange that they could go to the Fred Meyer a few miles away and still pay using Visa though.
They are offering $100 incentive to get the 1-2-3 card at Smiths and .55 off per gallon of fuel for a year when redeeming 100 fuel ponits. It is a pretty generous incentive. It has been hard for me to not bite on it, but I simply cannot support what Kroger is doing with its credit card acceptance. It isn't just this, it is also the refusal to accept Contactless/Android/Apple Pay that I find to be an annoyance.
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Re: Smith's Food & Drug stopping Visa acceptance

Post by rwsandiego »

I received the following in my mailbox today:
IMG-5802.jpg
IMG-5803.jpg
Looks like Smith's reversed course and, for some reason, is sending the notice to Fry's customers.

What is up at Kroger?
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Re: Smith's Food & Drug stopping Visa acceptance

Post by storewanderer »

Maybe you can take it to Fry's and see if they will accept it there.

They are doing the same offer here as well via mail and via the app. Have not been in to see if it is being delivered via the coupon machine at the register as well.

Definitely telling to see them reverse course like this. They really screwed up.
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Re: Smith's Food & Drug stopping Visa acceptance

Post by rwsandiego »

storewanderer wrote: November 8th, 2019, 11:50 pm Maybe you can take it to Fry's and see if they will accept it there.

They are doing the same offer here as well via mail and via the app. Have not been in to see if it is being delivered via the coupon machine at the register as well.

Definitely telling to see them reverse course like this. They really screwed up.
I'm going to try and see what happens.

Ditching VISA was just dumb. Glad they reversed themselves.
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