Arlo and Janis by Jimmy Johnson for September 27, 2023

Gene is pitching but Janis isn’t swayed. I’m with Janis too. Keep It Simple. I know that there’s a second S.

Basic math is not her strong suit

Careful Janis. Your son is using the same double speak used car salesmen use to convince you the extra warranty “Just costs extra, and isn’t really necessary”.

Rule 1 of Garbage sales: Price the item to be Gone!

“…They’ll pay two.” More likely they’ll offer you a nickel or, “50 cents for the whole box”.

It’s a good thing they don’t live here. In order to promote the use of plastic there’s a law that says that you cannot add a fee when someone wants to use plastic. But you can offer a discount for cash. I know, it’s the same difference, but it does sound like you’re getting a deal for using cash. So price it at $1.13 and take $1 if they pay cash.

He’s wrong, people won’t pay $2 if they’ll pay $1. Some may, many won’t

I love the arguments about swipe fees and how if changed it will hurt/harm the consumer depending on who is pushing it. It’s just an argument about who gets the money, banks or big box stores, and you know it will never reach down to the buyers.

“In God we trust, all others pay cash”.

as an OLDER adult i do pay with plastic but when i get charge more for that no matter how much i say No Thank You ,and go some ware else to eat, shop .

You probably shouldn’t stop by after the sale and ask for your cut.

I never knew Arlo & Janis had children…

I’ve noticed people Gene’s age all pay with cards….everything! Even just a dollar for candy…. They don’t care. So yes, I see where Gene is coming from, plus he has experience with his customers

I don’t think he means that as a compliment.

Yard sales are so professionalized now that a lot of the hard-core customers are likely to expect to be able to use plastic. Also, going cash-only means they’ll need a ton of change, because so many people will show up with only twenties.

Janis sounds like my mom. She refused to let anyone make money off of her and her business if at all possible. Sadly, when it came to things like selling a house, she refused to use a realtor and always under priced them.

So someone is using a card for a $1 purchase?

The problem with plastic is, someone will pay a buck or two and then not remember what it’s for (it won’t say Janis’ Yard Sale on the bill) and challenge it. Then you have to prove they bought something and the card company will charge $35 for that privilege. A $1 sale could wipe out the day’s profit.

That’s exactly what the genius “Suits” at companies say: “Just double the price and we’ll make twice as much!”

Anyone have a clue where this arc is heading? I thought we were announcing a grandbaby. Wasn’t that the consensus?

No, they will not pay $2 for a $1 item. Gene has obviously never had a yard sale. The customers are looking for stuff very cheap.

For large ticket items such as nicer furniture, cash only really limits the price you can expect to get

These days more places are charging a fee for using plastic so they don’t penalize people paying cash. I like the trend.

Back when, part of our business repaired cordless phones. Most repairs were dirty keyboards and nicads that developed memory. We had a jig for the battery restore and cleanup was quick. The charge $20 tax included, people had no trouble paying it, Go over even amounts they stop coming. Did the same thing at our inkjet refill store, make everything an even amount

Gene’s spiel makes sense for high ticket items, but not for $1 (or under) items. Most people won’t overpay for your junk even if a credit card is more convienient.

My problem with garage/yard sales:

3 days prep (choosing, pricing, display tables), 1-2 days of actual selling, only selling 30-40% of your stuff (if that), and cleanup afterwards. Plus – still disposing of the 60-70% remaining “merch”. All for a few dollars – usually less than minimum wage on a per hour basis.

I say take it all to goodwill or equivalent and be done with it. It’s still a tax deduction even if you don’t itemize.

He’s crediting her for her smarts. She’s saying just what merchants have been saying recently about credit card purchasing fees. The merchant makes more money if customers just use cash.

I’ve been in convenience stores that require a $7 minimum purchase for credit cards. Sales below $7 must use cash or no sale. The “swipe fee” problem is the reason they do that.

Janis has plenty going for her!

But you will sell more items. 10 instead of one who brought cash.

She makes sense. Son should learn from this

Gene isn’t making the right argument. The reason to have a credit card reader is so that you don’t lose sales to people who don’t want to pay with cash; something that’s becoming increasingly common, especially in a post-COVID world. If you can’t take cards, you will lose some sales from people who don’t want to use cash. So the question is, do you want to lose those non-cash customer sales?

The people who want to use cash will probably use cash anyway. But any customer who doesn’t want to use cash, will walk away and not buy anything, because you don’t accept credit cards and that’s a no-sale from which you get nothing.

If you take plastic you will lose some small percentage of the sale (less than 5% generally) to swipe fees, but you’ll make the sale. If you don’t take plastic, you will lose 100% of every non-sale that isn’t made to people who don’t want to use cash. So which would you rather have, 95% of a credit card sale or 100% of a no-sale?

My mom had a problem with simple logic. I would ask what size pizza she wanted, and she would say the one with the most slices.

Shes right, the fee is larger if you collect more money, but not by much. We have a small business and taking cards has doubled our sales

Two thoughts:

1) Business acumen… Didn’t Gene and Mary Lou crash their businesses?

2) Some of us want the anonymity that paying with cash provides.

I know Arlo worked in an office but did JJ ever reveal what he did there?

I always would rather pay cash because then it’s mine.

Cash is king. No fees

What did Janis do for a living?

In my area, even though inflation is rampant everywhere, people still expect everything to be a 25¢ or 50¢ at garage sales!

JJ, you have no idea what it is like holding a yard/garage sale. You realize pennies on $40. I will NEVER do that again.

I have only been to one garage sale – decades ago my in-laws had one. Big problem for them was they lived on a “court” with no cards driving by and did not sell much. Not sure who would wanted the stuff anyway.

We had a holiday craft show in our garage some decades ago. We live on a 4 lane main road. Our only sale was to our next door older neighbor and I am not sure she did not buys something just because she felt sorry for us. We have sold at craft shows over the years, but as mentioned elsewhere we tended to make/sell low priced items. Now that husband is doing weaving and we are selling greatly higher priced items we are setup to take credit cards – and most sales are same.