1. Checks. Accepting personal checks is not recommended unless you have purchased a verification service. Your credit card provider will likely offer this service for an additional fee.
2. Credit Cards. Accepting credit cards is both mandatory and essential to your business’ success. We work with a few credit card processors. Some of our processors are more beneficial for stores with smaller average transactions while others are better for stores with larger average transactions. Most credit card processors will offer you a cost comparison. Be wary of “too good to be true” rates. We have seen many credit card processors offer a great rate only to charge a much higher rate later. We do not recommend signing a long-term agreement with any processor for that reason alone.
3. Gift Cards and Street Corner’s Loyalty Program. Popular gift cards on the market currently are prepaid gift cards that are managed through the major credit card companies, such as Visa, MasterCard, or American Express. These cards are acceptable just like a credit card, as long as the value on the card is enough to cover all or part of the purchase. A customer may use up a balance on a gift card and pay any remaining balance of the purchase with an alternative method.
Street Corner does offer its own loyalty card, which can be used as a gift card specifically for your location. It is not uncommon for another store manager to purchase a few of these cards as incentives for their employees or as gifts for holidays. Call the Operations department to ask for these cards.
4. Employee IOU’s. Individual franchisees must determine their own policy toward employee IOU purchases. Therefore, the following information is offered for information purposes only:
a. If an employee wishes to make a purchase but does not have the funds with which to pay, you can allow them to write an IOU and leave it in the register.
b. The sale should be entered into the POS system as a cash sale.
c. Generally, employee IOU’s should not be encouraged and management should set a weekly limit, per employee, for IOU sales.
d. Because the labor laws of most states prohibit the deduction of any monies from an employee’s paycheck without his/her prior knowledge and consent, it is a wise practice to have new employees execute a written authorization to deduct IOU amounts in the event that the IOU amount is not repaid as agreed.
6. Employee Discounts. Employee discounts can be authorized at the discretion of the individual franchise owner. Each store is likely to have its own unique policy regarding discounts for employees.