Zeev's Turnips Patch-No Politics (ZEEV)

[Joe Stocks]

>>the number of "declines" i'm getting when i process charge sales <<

I own a hardware store. My wife does the books. She was just telling me tonight at dinner how many more return checks we are getting. Said it started picking up about mid October. In addition to that, shoplifting seems to have picked up and we had a break-in last week... and a "quick change artist" attempt. Come to think of it we also had a customer go bankrupt on us this week too. I bet we haven't had one those in two years. Maybe it's just coincidence that we have these things happening all at once. I'm starting to wonder.

Here's an odd story. Yesterday, a cash customer that has shopped us for some 15 years came up to the register with a buggy with about $300 of expensive housewares and giftware. Wanted to open an instore charge account right on the spot. We only do commercial accounts with a credit ap and I turned her down (very politely). She left the stuff. My first thought was why she didn't just use a credit card like she has for so many years. Then I wondered if she was getting ready to go bk and wants to stick us with bill. The whole thing was out of character for her.

Joe