Let’s talk about convenience stores for a minute. Have you ever walked into one of these to get a gallon of milk, or chips. No cash in your pocket so you have to use your debit card.. Only to find out that they charge 50 cents or higher to make purchases after they have already marked up the price due to the economy? Think about it, think about every purchase that you have made over the past year that you were charged that extra 50 cents or more. Now think about how much they have made off of you alone, times that by 1000′s of customers. Um ya, there is no way that they are not making profit off of that charge.. In this session I focused on exactly that..
Here is the Scenario:
Last night after getting off work I realize that I need to stop for a pack of smokes. So I swing into one of the local convenience stores, only to see a new girl working at the counter. I think to myself, Perfect! I walk up to the counter and ask her for a pack of smokes, she starts to ring them up and then she remembers that there is a 50 cent charge on all purchases under $10. After tax they cost $9.86. So naturally they are going to try and charge me the 50 cents.
The Attack
I looked up at the girl when she was starting to ring up the smokes, she seemed a bit nervous. I’m guessing first or second day on the job. She said “I think I’m forgetting something?”, then she sees the sign that says “a 50 cent charge will be added for all debit card purchases under $10″. So she starts to add the charge and I say “You know that is illegal right?”, She quickly replies “It is?”.. At this point I knew that this was going to be easy.. I explained to her that if the credit card companies found out that they would investigate the business and then would reimburse all of the previous customers money, and that if I was charged this money on top of the already highly taxed purchase that I was making, then I would go somewhere else and purchase my smokes, and contact visa. She thought about it for a minute and said “oh, I don’t want to get fired”, then I replied, “think about all of the money that your company will lose if they are investigated and have to pay back every single customer that purchased things under $10 on a debit card”, “then think about how quickly you will lose your job, and ” it’s only $9.86, do you really think that your supervisor is going to be mad over a few cents versus the alternative of hundreds of thousands of dollars?”.. At this point I could see the wheels spinning in her head, then the next thing I know, she cleared the register and I obtained my smokes for the right price! No 50 cent charge, just the smokes and the outrageous tax that the states governor has added to them..
Pwned!
