Franchisee Associations

From CNN Money

Gift certificate rules burn small business - Sep. 5, 2007

(FSB Magazine) -- With consumers screaming about abuses, more than 30 states have enacted laws banning gift cards and certificates with short expiration periods and requiring issuers to turn over cash from expired cards to the state. Eight states have added such laws in 2007 alone.

Caught on the bad side of good intentions, however, are small businesses that thrive on gift certificates - spas, salons, and restaurants. Fountain of Youth Day Spa in Albuquerque stopped selling certificates when the New Mexico law went into effect in July - even though gifts account for 25% of sales - because it requires certificates to be valid for five years and forces issuers to turn over 60% of the value of expired cards.

Read more about gift certificate cards and small business.

Good article from Brian Kreps at Washington Post on Internet Coupon Fraud

Hacking Groceries: Internet Coupon Fraud - Security Fix

"Over the weekend, my wife and I were shopping at Magruder's, a local grocery chain to which we're fiercely loyal, and we noticed a handwritten sign attached to the credit-card reader in the checkout line:

"Attn customers: Due to coupon fraud, we are unable to take Internet coupons."

A store manager, who asked me to kindly leave his name out of this post, said the store-wide policy went into effect last year, after it became apparent that there was "a lot of cheating going on. People were gang-printing these things by the reamfuls."

I've written about teenage hackers creating wholesale counterfeit coupons to get free pizza and other stuff at popular fast food joints, but the type of coupon fraud that's going on these days makes that type of activity seem like amateur hour.

Curious as to just how bad the coupon fraud problem really is, I checked out the Web site for the Coupon Information Center, a non-profit group based here in Alexandria, Va., which represents the manufacturers that issue 70 percent of the coupons in the United States today. Turns out that the Internet is helping to facilitate coupon fraud on a unprecedented scale."

According to Business Edge News, Interactive retail kiosks are pushing the right buttons:

"Facing time-starved consumers and continuing labour shortages, retailers are looking to new technologies to change the way we shop.

Various forms of interactive customer-service kiosks - some of which are being tested in Canada - could soon become the latest tool in a store owner's arsenal.

According to NCR Corp., once known as the National Cash Register Co. and now focused on using innovative technology to solve business problems, kiosks are an easy way for companies to "up-sell" their products - getting consumers to buy more than they would otherwise.

"The kiosks are better than a (sales) person on an up-sale," says Kent Porter, Mississauga-based director of self-service for NCR's retail solutions division in Canada. This type of kiosk, where people themselves punch in what they want to order or what service they want, is in demand."

Facing time-starved consumers and continuing labour shortages, retailers are looking to new technologies to change the way we shop.

Various forms of interactive customer-service kiosks - some of which are being tested in Canada - could soon become the latest tool in a store owner's arsenal.

According to NCR Corp., once known as the National Cash Register Co. and now focused on using innovative technology to solve business problems, kiosks are an easy way for companies to "up-sell" their products - getting consumers to buy more than they would otherwise.

"The kiosks are better than a (sales) person on an up-sale," says Kent Porter, Mississauga-based director of self-service for NCR's retail solutions division in Canada. This type of kiosk, where people themselves punch in what they want to order or what service they want, is in demand.