Just was at one yesterday, and was surprised by this policy of theirs. Not in a rough section of town, if that’s a factor.
Because someone could charge it back even though they kept the liquor.
Processing fees are higher on credit cards.
WAG but possibly because retailers have to pay juice to a credit card company (usually 3%) but not for cash taken out of a checking account, or at least not as much.
The Woodmans Markets don’t take credit cards and their info says it’s to help keep their costs down.
WAG If you have a debit card, you would need the PIN to use it as a debit card, unlike a (stolen) credit card which you can fake a signature on. It actually checks the balance so the cash has to be there and it’s more likely they will actually get paid, versus a credit card which could be stolen and used without a PIN.
All bets are off with a debit card that can be run as a credit card. Presumably they don’t allow that.
It could also be that the owners think it’s immoral for people to go into debt buying booze. But I find it unlikely.
This is very likely the reason. Merchants pay lower fees for debit card use than credit cards. Fees really bite into profit, especially for small purchases.
Is this a small store? I’m willing to bet that they have never accepted credit cards, and would like to not accept debit cards, due to the processing fees. But they recently gave in and now accept debit cards because lots of people don’t carry cash. In the end, they will have to give in further and accept credit cards as well. Even though I usually do carry cash, I also use a credit card for lots of purchases. I never use a debit card.
My guess, as well. Aldi used to be this way until not too long ago. Heck, even Costco wouldn’t take anything but American Express and debit cards until not too long ago, too.
Now costco only takes visa. Visa gave them a better deal than AMEX so they switched.
arco/AMPM gas and mini marts quit taking any type of credit cards years ago… it got to the point that when Arco came out with a another try at gas card the company split in two … northern Cal is owned by Arco its self and southern Cal rights are owned by a franchised company and doesn’t take cards
They say credit card processing places want 6-10 percent of the sales …
There’s a few grocery store chains that say the same … Now some places like Costco and sams club used to have exclusive deals with amex or visa ect …
One of our regional grocery stores also only takes debit cards: WINCO.
Also: Safeway charges 10 cents more per gallon of gasoline for using a credit card instead of debit.
actually ampm used to not charge you a fee if you used a bank of America debit card for a number of years … then is was 15 cents then a quarter now I think its 60 or 70 cents per transaction …
I worked for awhile at a very small rural package store. The 2 things people got mad about the most was the fact we didn’t take any cards or checks, and we didn’t have milk for sale. I am not even kidding.
Thanks for the answers, all. I know a few small businesses which only take cash, but I’ve never known a business (and this liquor store is sizable) to only take debit and not credit cards. Ignorance fought.
Whether debit or credit is cheaper depends on the transaction. Sometimes one is cheaper than the other. But in the long run, these stores find that debit is cheaper for them and the types of transactions they do.
Also, I don’t know the answer to this, but a WAG - if there is any loss in communication and they cannot contact the card company, it seems that debit is safer to use?
Came in to say Winco. They’re an extreme budget store (though good to shop at). I don’t go often but I would forget that they did this when trying to pay with a card.
Depends what you mean by regional, they’re all over the west coast to Idaho and Arizona. And DFW and Oklahoma City for some reason.
Several years back, the card companies forbade retailers from charging extra for a card - they could instead give a cash discount over the advertised price. I think they did away with this rule, though.
They’re franchised, so I think it’s up to the individual store? I don’t remember being charged on some occasions.
Technically, not true, I believe. They are precluded from doing that by their agreements with the credit card companies. However, what they CAN do, if memory serves me right, is discount the gasoline cost when you pay with cash. The net effect is much the same, of course.
Big companies follow the credit contracts fairly precisely; small businesses often disregard them unless/until their noses are rubbed in them (with the threat of losing the ability to take credit cards from one of the companies!). That’s why some places have minimums for credit (not allowed!), or add special fees for use of a card (not allowed!). And if I’m not mistaken, if you are going to let your customers pay with a MasterCard or VISA debit/credit card, you can’t limit the transactions to just one or the other (I’ve not looked at the current credit card company agreement in a while).
WINCO stands for WA, ID, NV, CA and OR…so I guess that’s a region. 
It sounds like they need to modify their name a bit. Maybe WINCOATO?
Not sure there is any difference there: Six one way, half-dozen the other.
If it matters, this is the type of sign I have seen:
So, they are either charging 10 cents more per gallon to use a credit card or discounting it by 10 cents to use a debit card/cash.
Depending on where you are, that changed a few years ago. It used to be, as you say, you couldn’t surcharge customers for using credit cards. But, the way around it was offering a cash or debit discount. Anyhow, that’s gone, as well as the restriction (that nobody followed anyway) against minimum charges for credit transactions.
The Durbin Amendment to Dodd-Frank allowed merchants to offer incentives to pay cash/debit vs. credit, as well as letting merchants set a $10 minimum for credit card sales.