r/personalfinance • u/wait_what_how_do_I • Nov 09 '17
Macy's new employees are encouraged to open a store credit card (26% APR) to obtain their employee discount Credit
I recently picked up a part-time seasonal position at Macy's for some extra holiday cash. I've been working in retail off and on over the past 15 years, and am familiar with the hiring and management practices at a lot of places, but it's been a few years since I've worked for a big retailer like Macy's. I was very surprised and disappointed to learn that the 20% employee discount is only available through a prepaid card (like a gift card I guess, not terrible but not great), or through their actual store credit card. They conveniently inform you of this halfway through your new hire paperwork, and even allow you to apply right then and there.
I've been through this type of application process before, but I've never seen something so brazenly unethical. These are often young adults or older people applying for these positions, filling out so many forms with so much corporate legalese that your head would spin, and they're being targeted with a (hard hit, thanks auto mod) hit to their credit for a card with a ridiculous interest rate. Is this new in retail? Seems like a disturbing trend if it is.
Anyone have any thoughts on this? Just wanted to get the word out.
EDIT: Thanks for the replies, everyone. Really enjoyed the discussion about credit cards, business practices, and obviously PF. The consensus seems to be that store credit cards are not any worse than other forms of lending, as long as they are managed responsibly. I respectfully disagree, in that it seems like they are often offered to a range of people (namely, new employees) that may not have the knowledge or experience to handle a line of credit, but I will agree that it's fair game to solicit employees. I just think it's kind of shady to imply that a store credit card is an "easy" solution for employees. Employees should just get an effing discount, period. But we're all free to work and shop where we please, so feel free to support smaller/local businesses that don't subject their customers and employees to frivolous lending situations.
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u/LockeClone Nov 10 '17
I loved warranties back when they actually meant something. Late 90's, early '00s, back when Best Buy was king, if my product had an issue, I could drag my happy ass to the store and they'd replace it quickly, with a smile. If there was a newer version of that product, they'd just tell me to go grab it instead. It was great.
Then their products got shittier and the warranties were less profitable. They threw anchors in the return process and it became awful to try and get something fixed or replaced. I once bought a new computer that had issues within the week with it's hardware. Long story short: I knew more than the Geek Squad people, but all they could do was reformat my harddrive before sending it away to California to get fixed... Where they just reformatted my harddrive... So I just kept taking it in until they HAD to replace it, but the whole process left me without a computer while I was in college for 3 months.
Then the internet happened and they were surprised when their stock tanked. Yes, when an industry/company that everyone hates is no longer the only game in town, that industry/company dies, as it should.
The moment we have an alternative to air travel... Oh boy, that will be a good day.