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Square eGift Cards
- itake 7y agoI have thought about purchasing ecards at my local stores, but how will I know if they will still be around long enough for me to use it?
- mataug 7y agoYou don't! Its a best effort contribution to help improve their probability of surviving this crisis. *Exceptions: Large Chain Restaurants
- wenc 7y ago> how will I know if they will still be around long enough for me to use it? Treat it like a donation. I know not all can afford to do this, but many of us can.
- shadowoflight 7y agoThink of it as a crowdfunding campaign for your favorite local businesses - hopefully you'll be able to enjoy the benefits of the money you spent further down the line, but even if you don't, you know you supported someone or something you believed in.
- bigwheeler 7y agoThanks so much for creating this! I’m going to buy one from every single one in my ZIP Code. Hopefully if enough people use this, it will help all of these super small businesses get through this.
- dhosek 7y agoOut of curiosity, I entered my zip code and discovered a large number of businesses I wasn't aware of... Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be any additional information about these businesses beyond what's in the two or three images for the gift cards.
- sf_rob 7y agoIt really doesn't make it clear how this works, and I can't find a consumer facing help article. Does this just email me a code or what?
- bigwheeler 7y agoYes, I just ordered a bunch of them. Got several emails.
- sf_rob 7y agoThanks, love this! Feature request: Shopping cart for bulk checkout.
- mattegan 7y agoCan someone help me understand something regarding gift cards as a way to support businesses during this shutdown? Gift cards are basically outstanding liabilities, right? If they're not accounted for correctly, when large amounts of people are able to redeem them again, they're left with no money to pay those expenses in the future. Obviously, things aren't as bad if ratio of gift cards to cash spending is somewhat reasonable when the business reopens. Seems unless you can commit people to not redeeming the cards, you're essentially time-delaying the reduction in revenue. Also, it's my understanding that gift cards are pretty difficult to account for normally (requiring looking at historical redemption data to prevent liabilities from growing indefinitely on the balance sheet). Some of these places are going to be accepting gift cards for the first time in their history. Is there any room here for a guide to help these places navigate the accounting of them?
- in0v8r 7y agoIn theory, redemption would be distributed over time vs. the abruptness of our current situation. And, as you mentioned, there will be other forms of payment. I would expect most people would by the gift card for less than what they expect to spend.
- NortySpock 7y agoCorrect. Of course you could have the gift card expire after a year, letting you remove those liabilities from your balance sheet eventually. Otherwise you could antipate that say 1% of your customers will use a gift card on any particular day, and hopefully you have that spaced out far enough that you can survive paying your liabilities over time.
- frosted-flakes 7y agoBut most countries/states have laws that prevent gift cards from expiring.
- brunoTbear 7y agoHere's an article from The Atlantic about this question: https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2019/08/where-do-all-unused-gift-cards-go/596860/ https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2019/08/where... US Law requires a minimum 5 year expiry on gift cards https://www.ftc.gov/sites/default/files/documents/statutes/credit-card-accountability-responsibility-and-disclosure-act-2009-credit-card-act/credit-card-pub-l-111-24_0.pdf https://www.ftc.gov/sites/default/files/documents/statutes/c... Starbucks is particularly fortunate to be based on Washington https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/07/15/these-3-companies-earned-99-million-from-unused-gi.aspx https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/07/15/these-3-companies-...
- ChrisArchitect 7y agodownvote. Only USA? What, Square? You don't have any retailers outside of the States?
- talkingtab 7y agoI suppose that attempting to profit from the crisis is to be expected, but what about square kicking in? Like reducing the amount they take from the transaction by half and adding it to what goes to the business?
- JaggedJax 7y agoI don't want to speculate about Square's intentions and know nothing of their margins, but Square seems to primarily be a processor for in-person transactions which are the most affected ones right now. I imagine that Square's business may be way down right now as well and thus have a hard time offering discounts.
- stupp 7y agoIt appears Square is doing many things to help sellers, including refunding all subscription fees for march. https://www.instagram.com/p/B94ie84p-_b/?igshid=6zegvcfdithd https://www.instagram.com/p/B94ie84p-_b/?igshid=6zegvcfdithd
- shaneprrlt 7y agoI hope they leave this up after the crisis because this is actually just a way better tool to find local restaurants than googling "restaurants near me".
- echelon 7y agoYeah, this is seriously cool. It seems to correlate with all the independent, hipster-type places I like. After seeing the local restaurants and shops I remembered how much I like/miss these places.
- freedrock87 7y agoThis is just a listing of restaurants that use Square register.
- deca6cda37d0 7y agoWhy US only?
- d3ad1ysp0rk 7y agoNeat - our business is the only one that apparently uses Square gift cards in the entire town :) https://giveandgetlocal.com/?address=Carrabassett%20Valley%2C%20ME%2C%20USA https://giveandgetlocal.com/?address=Carrabassett%20Valley%2...
- testerino11111 7y agoToast did the same thing. It's a great way to support your local restaurants if you have the spare cash right now. https://rallyforrestaurants.com/ https://rallyforrestaurants.com/