Store Credit Cards are an Affront to Mankind.
I love big retail outlets, don’t get me wrong — there’s something magical and ethereal about wandering through the barren aisles of Sears, witnessing firsthand how the Old Gods of American consumerism have fallen from grace. More optimistically, I love running marathons through Target and buying tacky v-necks and home-alone-themed underwear in my spare time.
What I don’t like about retail is when an entry-level sales associate jumps out from behind a shelf with a store credit card application and tries to force me into a lifetime of debt and servitude in exchange for 5% cashback on all purchases. Maybe it’s personal experience, but the strategic positioning of where all these employees hide in each store I go is astounding — I’m pretty confident that in the event of a mainland invasion of the United States, Walmart’s brand of guerrilla warfare is going to be our last line of defense.
Military prowess aside, store credit cards are hands-down one of the worst things to plague the American economy, so I can’t blame retail workers for being forced to sell them; they often have incredibly abusive terms and fees, and many large chains coerce their employees into getting as many signups as possible, often at the expense of transparency and accountability.
For starters, that 5% cashback really isn’t doing all that much for you; remember — a store credit card is still a credit card. That means that if you use it, you’re gonna have to pay an interest rate at the end of the year, known as an APR. According to a recent survey, most store cards charge you well over the national average, with some having a rate as high as 30%. Assuming you don’t pay off your full balance at the end of each month, chances are you’re probably gonna rack up more in interest fees than you are in savings. I could drone on about the effect it has on your credit score, utilization ratios, and other boring finance words, but the bottom line is this: you’re not saving money, and the time it takes to pay off a single purchase can take several years if you’re not careful.
If you think that store credit cards are lame, they’re arguably as lame for the people who are forced to sell them to you. Retail employees are coerced by management to sell as many cards as possible and often resort to cutthroat tactics out of fear of getting reprimanded during their next review. They often have unreasonable sign-up quotas for each month and face threats of getting worse hours if they don’t meet them, and some sign you up for cards without your knowledge. Firsthand accounts from employees reveal that they’re threatened with termination and write-ups if they don’t meet these targets, which forces them to push credit cards down customers’ throats, often to the detriment of your shopping experience. As it turns out, many stores do this out of desperation; it’s the best way to make profit in an industry that’s slowly caving in to online shopping platforms like Amazon — but that doesn’t justify how those stores treat their workers.
I guess it’d be dishonest of me not to disclose something; when that employee jumps out from behind the shelf with a card application, I can always see the pain in their eyes. I see an anxious college freshman who’s been beaten over the head by upper management to sell a credit card at any cost; to sign me up for one without asking, to feed me excuses that the APR doesn’t apply if I “pay it off and close the card”, and other half-truths, purely out of the desperation to keep their job. I understand, because I’ve been in that position as a sales associate myself.
There has to be a better way to bring people value for patronizing a business. There has to be a way to reward people without forcing them into unfair credit card agreements and strong-arming entry level employees into shady sales gimmicks. Maybe it’ll take a long time before these things stop being the norm, but here at Nouvo, we’re trying to change that one step at a time. By making cashback automatic and hands-free, small businesses can keep their customers around without hurting your wallet, their staff, or your shopping experience.
When he’s not putting off studying for his college classes, Filipp Krasovsky is one of the founders of Nouvo. You can make fun of him for procrastinating on his Facebook, or emailing him at filipp@Nouvo.io.
