Target no longer accepting checks as of July 15th, 2024

[elsmere241]

Heh. Don't forget how once upon a time if you wrote a check, the merchant asked for a driver's license and a "major credit card" and usually wrote your credit card number on the check. That was banned by the early 1990s.

When I worked at the Delaware House Roy Rogers the summer of 1991, we didn't take personal checks, and travelers' checks required a photo ID.  We'd write the number and state on the back of the check.  This drove Canadians crazy because their drivers' licences didn't have pictures on them at the time.

What drove us nuts is that we couldn't take plastic, and there was no ATM in the building.

[mgk920]

I play at a Magic: the Gathering store. One time when the power was out, the rules were cash purchases only. This particular store was low-volume enough that "write down the 16 digits, manually process when the power comes back on" would have been an option, but he didn't. This obviously wouldn't work manually for a high-volume location like Bobby5280 described, but I'm wondering if this is the underlying mechanism for Square and Toast where any offline purchase has the card number and amount of money kept track of in a database and then processed immediately when back online.

Writing card numbers down on a notecard is never an option. That is the worst possible thing you can do with someone's financial information. It also puts the business against PCI regulations.

At my work, when the CC system goes down, we are CASH ONLY and are specifically not allowed by the CC company to write down the info to 'run later'.

Mike

[Max Rockatansky]

Most modern POS systems will retain credit card information for a certain period of time while offline.  We currently have Xstore and the programming which can hold information for a least a week while being offline.  The main problem is that you can't run end day processes without downloading the data otherwise the register system will drop it from active memory.  I'm uncertain if the transactions can be rebuilt using what information is sent to journal memory, but I doubt it has credit information. 

[LilianaUwU]

Whose idea was it to name it "piece of shit system"?

[Max Rockatansky]

I've always struggled to understand why "Point of Sale" is a term in retail when "register" is perfectly sufficient.

[1995hoo]

I've always struggled to understand why "Point of Sale" is a term in retail when "register" is perfectly sufficient.

Reminds me of a government job I had 30 years ago in which the higher-ups refused to refer to telephones as having "caller ID." Instead, they called it "Automatic Number Identification," which of course they then called "ANI" because the government has to have an abbreviation for everything.

Whose idea was it to name it "piece of shit system"?

Heh. I had thought several times about making a comment about how Bobby5280 almost certainly views it as a "POS system" regardless of others' comments.

[JayhawkCO]

I've always struggled to understand why "Point of Sale" is a term in retail when "register" is perfectly sufficient.

Reminds me of a government job I had 30 years ago in which the higher-ups refused to refer to telephones as having "caller ID." Instead, they called it "Automatic Number Identification," which of course they then called "ANI" because the government has to have an abbreviation for everything.

I remember when I was in 8th grade, my cousin came to visit who was in nursing school. She was always known as kind of a braggart and was telling everyone about her awesome nursing activities. She was talking about one of her patients who had something wrong with their tympanic membrane, and 13 year old me piped up, "Why don't you just call it an eardrum?" She shut up pretty quick.

[formulanone]

Whose idea was it to name it "piece of shit system"?

The same people who doled out an IATA code to Port-of-Spain's airport.

[vdeane]

Whose idea was it to name it "piece of shit system"?

Heh. I had thought several times about making a comment about how Bobby5280 almost certainly views it as a "POS system" regardless of others' comments.

I was thinking something similar.

Also, my coworkers and I derived entirely too much amusement from the abbreviation when reviewing resumes to hire an intern some years back.  The person had worked as a cashier at a car wash, but left out the h, leading to their resume saying "car was POS" at one point.  We were tempted to email them and wish them good luck in getting a job so they could get a "not POS car".

[Max Rockatansky]

Let's be real, the least weird thing we can probably associate with Target is the usage of "POS" as an acronym.  I'm still way more perplexed by stuff like calling employees "Team Members" and customers "Guests."  You didn't have a "manager" at Target but rather an "Executive Team Leader."

[webny99]

I'm still way more perplexed by stuff like calling employees "Team Members" and customers "Guests."  You didn't have a "manager" at Target but rather an "Executive Team Leader."

I don't see what's so weird about that except maybe calling customers guests, but I doubt that actually happens on a regular basis. I've become accustomed to "clients" but don't think I would ever use "guests" in a business context.

[Max Rockatansky]

I'm still way more perplexed by stuff like calling employees "Team Members" and customers "Guests."  You didn't have a "manager" at Target but rather an "Executive Team Leader."

I don't see what's so weird about that except maybe calling customers guests, but I doubt that actually happens on a regular basis. I've become accustomed to "clients" but don't think I would ever use "guests" in a business context.

I prefer to be called an employee over a demeaning corporate buzzword.  When I worked at Target I was an employee.  The only time I was ever a team member was off the clock when I played a couple softball games with co-workers.

[webny99]

I'm still way more perplexed by stuff like calling employees "Team Members" and customers "Guests."  You didn't have a "manager" at Target but rather an "Executive Team Leader."

I don't see what's so weird about that except maybe calling customers guests, but I doubt that actually happens on a regular basis. I've become accustomed to "clients" but don't think I would ever use "guests" in a business context.

I prefer to be called an employee over a demeaning corporate buzzword.  When I worked at Target I was an employee.  The only time I was ever a team member was off the clock when I played a couple softball games with co-workers.

To be honest I don't see why "team member" would be demeaning. If you don't feel it applies to you, then either the company has failed to create the culture they profess or you just weren't a good fit for that company to begin with.

[Max Rockatansky]

I'm still way more perplexed by stuff like calling employees "Team Members" and customers "Guests."  You didn't have a "manager" at Target but rather an "Executive Team Leader."

I don't see what's so weird about that except maybe calling customers guests, but I doubt that actually happens on a regular basis. I've become accustomed to "clients" but don't think I would ever use "guests" in a business context.

I prefer to be called an employee over a demeaning corporate buzzword.  When I worked at Target I was an employee.  The only time I was ever a team member was off the clock when I played a couple softball games with co-workers.

To be honest I don't see why "team member" would be demeaning. If you don't feel it applies to you, then either the company has failed to create the culture they profess or you just weren't a good fit for that company to begin with.

Meh, I've been in the same line of work my entire adult life (retail Loss Prevention).  There has been nothing I've seen in over the decades to suggest my initial assessment that "team member" was a silly/undignified thing to call an employee was off the mark.  I feel equally sour towards other phony retail titles such as "associate" and "coach."

Shall I regale you with other examples of how weird and absurd retail culture can be?  The "Sowing the seeds of our culture" push at Sears circa 2007-2008 was probably the worst/most over the top I've seen.  That involved a device called the "silent square" that I would love to tell you all about. 

[Scott5114]

Regarding the internet going down at the fireworks event...don't forget that this is a somewhat captive audience. If they don't want to take credit cards, they don't have to, because the alternative is either go without buying anything at all (forgoing drinks, outside, in Southwest Oklahoma, in July? yeah right) or leave and go to 7-11 and come back. They'll go to the ATM to save themselves the trouble of leaving the event, and Bobby's booth will take the cash to save themselves the trouble of fucking around with credit cards. And if there's enough people to create lines long enough to make people mad, they're doing enough business to not really care if a few people do choose to run to 7-11 instead.

Saving the transaction and running it later converts it to a card-not-present transaction, which has higher fees, since there is no way to tell if the transaction will decline after the fact. And if any of those transactions do decline after the fact, the vendor has to eat the loss. That's reason enough to not accept credit cards in that kind of situation.

To be honest I don't see why "team member" would be demeaning. If you don't feel it applies to you, then either the company has failed to create the culture they profess or you just weren't a good fit for that company to begin with.

We didn't use "team member" at my last job, but I tend to find that kind of euphemism kind of insulting to my intelligence. The employer is trying to camouflage the employer/employee relationship by instead insisting you're a "member" of a "team". That way they can later guilt you into calling them out on violating employment laws by saying "hey, we're all part of a team here."

My last job did something similar when they rebranded the "chain of command" as a "line of support". They didn't appreciate that my response to the news was "It's a line of something, all right."

[JayhawkCO]

Let's be real, the least weird thing we can probably associate with Target is the usage of "POS" as an acronym.  I'm still way more perplexed by stuff like calling employees "Team Members" and customers "Guests."  You didn't have a "manager" at Target but rather an "Executive Team Leader."

Customers being guests is the de facto term in the restaurant biz.

[GaryV]

Let's be real, the least weird thing we can probably associate with Target is the usage of "POS" as an acronym.  I'm still way more perplexed by stuff like calling employees "Team Members" and customers "Guests."  You didn't have a "manager" at Target but rather an "Executive Team Leader."

Customers being guests is the de facto term in the restaurant biz.

If I have guests in my home, I don't make them pay for their meals. So why do restaurant "guests" have to pay?

[Max Rockatansky]

That's how I always saw the usage of guest in place of customers.  I recall having a debate with a girl I was dating about this over dinner at my house.  She very much was in favor of being called a guest at Target. Her view was that it made her feel good and therefore it wasn't stupid. 

We finished eating and as she was getting up from the table I asked her pay her meal.  She was taken aback by this and I pointed out that I was just asking her to pay as a guest like Target would. 

[hotdogPi]

Target doesn't even use the term "team members" correctly. The signs to the back say "team members only", which excludes vendors as written. Jo-Ann Fabrics does this correctly; their own employees are called team members but the doors say employees only, not team members only.

[SEWIGuy]

That's how I always saw the usage of guest in place of customers.  I recall having a debate with a girl I was dating about this over dinner at my house.  She very much was in favor of being called a guest at Target. Her view was that it made her feel good and therefore it wasn't stupid. 

We finished eating and as she was getting up from the table I asked her pay her meal.  She was taken aback by this and I pointed out that I was just asking her to pay as a guest like Target would. 

Wow. Wonder why it didn't work out.

[SectorZ]

Target doesn't even use the term "team members" correctly. The signs to the back say "team members only", which excludes vendors as written. Jo-Ann Fabrics does this correctly; their own employees are called team members but the doors say employees only, not team members only.

Walmart, at least when I worked there because I really don't pay attention now, followed the same thing as Jo-Ann Fabrics. Leave the cute terms for the employees, but be more direct and to the point with your legalities.

[JayhawkCO]

Let's be real, the least weird thing we can probably associate with Target is the usage of "POS" as an acronym.  I'm still way more perplexed by stuff like calling employees "Team Members" and customers "Guests."  You didn't have a "manager" at Target but rather an "Executive Team Leader."

Customers being guests is the de facto term in the restaurant biz.

If I have guests in my home, I don't make them pay for their meals. So why do restaurant "guests" have to pay?

I always explained to my staff that customers, you're just having a financial transaction with. Guests are people you hope have a great experience during their time with you.

[Max Rockatansky]

That's how I always saw the usage of guest in place of customers.  I recall having a debate with a girl I was dating about this over dinner at my house.  She very much was in favor of being called a guest at Target. Her view was that it made her feel good and therefore it wasn't stupid. 

We finished eating and as she was getting up from the table I asked her pay her meal.  She was taken aback by this and I pointed out that I was just asking her to pay as a guest like Target would. 

Wow. Wonder why it didn't work out.

It wasn't though I actually made her pay for dinner.  We dated for several years afterward.

[Max Rockatansky]

Target doesn't even use the term "team members" correctly. The signs to the back say "team members only", which excludes vendors as written. Jo-Ann Fabrics does this correctly; their own employees are called team members but the doors say employees only, not team members only.

Walmart, at least when I worked there because I really don't pay attention now, followed the same thing as Jo-Ann Fabrics. Leave the cute terms for the employees, but be more direct and to the point with your legalities.

A lot of the military exchanges brand their employees as "associates."  With Walmart I kind of get what were going for their given back in the day you could own shares with Sam Walton's company (or at least back in the day is when the branding meant something substantial).  You really can't own shares in the Federal government.  All exchanges are non-appropriated so the argument taxes equating to "associate status" doesn't really work out.

[kkt]

I'm still way more perplexed by stuff like calling employees "Team Members" and customers "Guests."  You didn't have a "manager" at Target but rather an "Executive Team Leader."

I don't see what's so weird about that except maybe calling customers guests, but I doubt that actually happens on a regular basis. I've become accustomed to "clients" but don't think I would ever use "guests" in a business context.

I prefer to be called an employee over a demeaning corporate buzzword.  When I worked at Target I was an employee.  The only time I was ever a team member was off the clock when I played a couple softball games with co-workers.

I agree.  I prefer that companies not use euphemisms for ordinary concepts.  "Guests" aren't required to pay.