Walmart Canada to stop accepting Visa credit cards | General financial discussion | Discussion forum

Interesting.
I must say, I am baffled as to why people shop at WalMart. I do price comparisons every week for groceries so that I can price match at the stores which allow it. It is rare for WalMart to offer anything in its flyer that is worth price-matching elsewhere, - at least for items on my shopping list.
I find it to be an expensive store, with questionable quality. The salads seem to wilt faster, and other issues.
So, here's another reason not to shop there.

That said, MC does seem to be gaining the upper hand. I prefer Visa because their system doesn't seem to fail me as frequently as MC, but I carry both because MC is more competitive.

Loonie said
Interesting. I must say, I am baffled as to why people shop at WalMart.

Because it is on my way home and allows one to do a couple things at once, not just groceries. I don't have a problem with the place but do understand there is some snobbery out there against it and/or misplaced anti-Americanism or anti-big-box-storeism.

Loonie said I do price comparisons every week for groceries so that I can price match at the stores which allow it. It is rare for WalMart to offer anything in its flyer that is worth price-matching elsewhere, - at least for items on my shopping list.
I find it to be an expensive store, with questionable quality. The salads seem to wilt faster, and other issues.

I always say to my wife, be careful at Walmart. If you don't know what you're doing (ie: what a price should be) they'll screw you over really fast/bad. Mind you, at least they are better than Loblaws/Fortinos and Sobeys, which are my other choices on the drive home. They'll screw you real bad on everything... lol
I concur on the produce at Walmart. Acceptable to substandard generally. The meat and dairy sections are pretty good though. Somehow they seem to have a deal with Maple Leaf that allows for prices I rarely see elsewhere and Maple Leaf is sold at almost all the full service grocery stores.

Loonie said That said, MC does seem to be gaining the upper hand. I prefer Visa because their system doesn't seem to fail me as frequently as MC, but I carry both because MC is more competitive.

I prefer using Visa at Walmart since we get 4% cashback... The proliferation of cashback cards may be contributing to their decision of course but there are probably bigger issues at play.

Headlines say:
TORONTO – Walmart says it intends to join the list of retailers in Canada that don’t accept Visa cards, citing high fees for transactions. It’s a move a retail analyst has said will cause “pain on all sides.”

First.
What list? Although I do not have a Visa card, my wife does and is not her primary card to use so we pay our bridge tolls with it. So are we going to see Visa to be like Amex? Impossible to use as a primary card every where and anywhere? We do plan to use it for Costco USA.

Second.
We try to NOT shop at Walmart Canada but we did the other day as it is housed in our old Zellers, then Target and I had to do some banking in the same mall. We do use Walmart USA as prices are much lower but only buy pop there and they do have a great selection of USA and imported beers and wine.

Third.
I purchased some Tiger Balm. Only one tin of the shelf. Ring a bell???? Just what Target did......minimal inventory.......unsure market? And for $12 and change it was only 14 cents less than at another major retailer. Do I trust their pricing.....NO. Another American retailer in Canada that figures out the Canadian price gouging game and follows suit!!

Fourth.
They squeeze their sources, they pay staff as low as possible and they squeeze cities for lower property taxes. So just as tax payers we already lose because they have a subsidy that is costing the little guy. Who has the major gain/greed???? Walmart costs with out even shopping there.

I recommend.
D O N ' T S H O P A T W A L M A R T ! !

AND DON'T APPLY FOR A WALMART MASTERCARD OR ANY OTHER RETAIL BRANDED CREDIT CARD THAT IS MARRIED TO VISA, AMEX, OR MASTERCARD. IT WILL COST YOU ONE WAY OR ANOTHER!!!

So like Costco Canada that expects us to change credit cards when they cannot come to an agreement will you change for them to MasterCard from Amex to Visa or what ever is next? Or will you say to heck with that, if you have their accepted credit card in your pocket you will shop there? What a horrible way to shop!!!! Walmart is just following Costco's methods. Costco, Walmart, MasterCard, and Amex give your heads a shake.......you may make "CASH" become in fashion once again.

1. In the article, the "list" they cite is Costco Canada and No Frills. So, I guess they figure the list is "growing" with the addition of WM. (I don't know if No Frills exists al across the country. It is a discount grocery store chain owned by Loblaw, and its prices are indeed better than WM, as are Costco's most of the time.)

2. I too don't find any reason to shop there.

3. re: Tiger Balm. I am not positive about this particular product, but in general for any kind of medicinals of Chinese origin or the kinds of supplements one gets at health food stores, I strongly suggest heading to a Chinese mall, of which there should be lots not too far from kanaka. The price differences are a real eye opener. Also, check out their cough medicine - best thing going, comes in a bottle inside a box, usually with red and gold colours.

ALSO, come to think of it, the Chinese grocery stores are normally much better prices than the chains for produce. As an example, small red grapes this week were $1.58 lb yesterday at grocery store in Chinatown on Gerrard St. here in TO - 30 cents cheaper than the best sale price in flyers for several weeks. I bought some. The quality is good, no problems. I will say, the quality is not ALWAYS the highest, so look before you buy but at least you're not paying top dollar like at WM. There is a small family-owned Chinese store near me that was selling bananas for 38 cents/lb the other day. They're definitely "ready to eat", just like they get after sitting on my dining room table for a few days at 59 cents/lb.!
You can often get similar prices at East Indian stores, and I am not East Indian either. These stores spend little or nothing on advertising, do not have highly paid executives, don't have big legal fees, and aren't listed on the stock market. I prefer to support the little guy when it's reasonable to do so. I don't belong to any of these ethnic groups, for the record.

4 I knew they were not great with their employees or suppliers, but did not know about the property taxes. This sort of arm twisting sounds the same as what they are doing with Visa. It's not what we need to make our country strong.

Wal-Mart Canada has been pissing me for a myriad of reasons right now, this being the latest and I used to like them:

1. Until recently, they spent years prohibiting cash from self-checkouts when the new bills and coinage were implemented and only recently have upgraded and/or replaced their machines
2. You can no longer apply for a Wal-Mart Financial MasterCard online, all applications must be done in store (they could easily fix this by allowing you to enter your long transaction code from your recent receipt to ensure that the CSR who upsold you receives credit for the application!)
3. They still haven't introduced a no-fee chequing account to be a companion to their MasterCard product nor have they replaced high fee, third party ATMs with no fee Wal-Mart branded ATMs
4. They've dramatically cut back on expenditures of weekly flyers, to like once a month, at best, and even then, they're much thinner, resulting in reduced revenue for already struggling newspapers, not very community-oriented
5. They still pay near minimum wage for store employees and rarely award full-time hours and zeolously discourage, dare I say prohibit, unionization
6. And now, this dispute with Visa, claiming they're trying to further trim expenses (they're already doing this!) and saying how much they pay in merchant fees to Visa, which accounts for between 55-60% of their credit card transaction volume. What they don't say is part of that is due to the sheer revenue they do every year and they pay probably the lowest merchant fee to Visa, less than any other Visa retailer, to be sure. Visa makes gobs of money, too, but on this one, I side with Visa as they're trying to make it the customer's problem.

Cheers,
Doug

WalMart Canada Bank was incorporated in Canada in 2009 under the Bank Act, according to Wikipedia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walmart_Canada#Wal-Mart_Canada_Bank

I don't know the details on their tax returns, but the previous government was very keen on low corporate tax rates. Ours are some of the lowest ones going, significantly lower than the US as I understand it. I haven't checked to see if the current govt has taken any initiatives to do anything differently.

Honestly, there are so many ways for corporations and the very rich to avoid taxes that it's laughable. Yet we continue to get dinged on our measly 2% interest. Not to mention all the no-strings handouts the taxpayer has given corporations over many many years to supposedly create "good jobs". They say they're going to create jobs with them, and the next thing you know they have upped and moved to Mexico or Indiana or wherever, where it's easier to take advantage of workers. Doesn't matter which party is in power; they have both been guilty of this.

Did you seethe article the other day about CRA going after Conrad Black? They have put a huge lien on his house apparently.