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Square eGift Cards

giveandgetlocal.com

21–30 of 33 posts

Re: Square eGift Cards

#21
I 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?

Re: Square eGift Cards

#23

I 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".

Yeah, 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.

Re: Square eGift Cards

#24

Thanks 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.

Out 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.

Re: Square eGift Cards

#25

I 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?

I 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.

Re: Square eGift Cards

#27
post #8

Can 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…

Here's an article from The Atlantic about this question: 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/c... Starbucks is particularly fortunate to be based on Washington https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/07/15/these-3-companies-...

For what's it's worth, gift cards issued through Square cannot expire. Albeit the merchant can unofficially decline.

> Do gift cards expire?

> Nope, gift cards from Square don’t expire.

https://squareup.com/help/us/en/article/5433-gift-cards-faqs

Re: Square eGift Cards

#28
post #8

Can 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…

Imagine rent is coming due at the end of March, and you're $1000 short. But you expect to have $5000 more than needed to get by, by the end of April. You'd be happy to take $1000 in March in the form of gift cards and have them redeemed in April.

To be safe, though, I plan to wait a few months, and maybe space it out across a couple months.

Re: Square eGift Cards

#30

I 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?

It 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
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