Whole Foods No Longer Accepting Checks

I still have a check book or two, oh, wait, where are they. I think I needed to send a check for some reason one time this year. I like that little book there as a backup I plan not to use.

Why should anyone accept checks? Nothing is easier to fake than a checking account . . . I have seen checks with fictional zip codes and non-existent addresses. Besides, writing and authorizing a check takes far too long. Use a debit card.

Wish I could remember when exactly I last used one. I had a good reason that day (it's vaporized). Aha, it was to make some telephone deposit to some company - they take your bank number, your account number, and check number. That's been a while and I forget what company it was. I'm sure I did that to beat the deadline re online banking slowness and the fee consequences.

True enough. We still accept them because some folks are slow to change and we know who they are. I can appreciate that WFood wants to see them gone. Chasing a bad check is expensive and often futile.
On the other side, I have 3 stores doing $1M in sales. So far this year, we have written 90 checks. 90. Everything else has been done via credit card or e-check. Surprisingly, some things, like the monthly rent for one of my stores or what I pay to Anthem for health insurance for my employees still has to be paid by a paper check. Go figure.

Another thing -- most grocery stores now have ATMs right there at the entrance. Why should they accept a personal check when all you have to do is run your card through the machine and get the cash you need? That's what I do. I seldom use a card at the checkout. By the time I get to checkout I've usually already stocked up on a wad of greenbacks.

ARRRGGH!

I HATE checks!

Why anyone continues to use them is beyond me.

I can't remember what is is off hand, but there is ONE thing I have to write a check for once a year, and it's like someone handed me a death sentence.

I think anyone that uses a check in a store should be taken out back and flogged.

Wait, I take that back.

If you are a female over the age of 70, and most of your wallet is filled with pictures of great grandchildren and cats, it's ok for you to write a check in a store.

People over 70 have paid their dues, and can do whatever the **** they want.

Cough, I suppose none of you have had to pay a bill at the edge of the due date by calling the company? Some want check info including check number. This happens less and less, but it has happened to me in the last year.

True enough, chai, particularly if they still are capable to make a witty comment about my employees, some of whom have tattoos, piercings or hair colors that are not produced naturally.

Where I used to work (Retail Hardware) we would get two kinds of checks. One, those written by the little old ladies so well described above by Chai2, seventy years old, blue hair and no hearing. The other kind were Business Checks. Unless we had been taking checks from a particular contractor for years we would get really stupid about taking a check from a unknown, usually we said "Sorry, our verifying machine is down, so why don't you use a credit card?"

In the last year of business, we took in less than three old lady checks a month, they all had switched over to debit cards.

Joe(tough NY Broads)Nation

I have cheques but rarely use them. Maybe one a year when I submit my RRSP contributions to my financial advisor and oh yeah, another one when I'm transferring money from one bank to another (bank, not branch) - the second bank is a BC bank and doesn't exist here, so I have to mail it to them... other than that, I don't use them.

But employers want a void cheque in order to pay you, I remember. My bank wanted to charge me $22 for 50 cheques! I wonder what it costs to write one these days - used to be $0.47 per cheque... and if it bounced, there's a $20 - $30 NSF charge on both ends (writer and casher)... So, for me, it's debit cards all the way.

I haven't seen anyone in a store write a cheque for years. I really can't remember the last time.

yeah Mame, I remember that, about having to give your employer a voided check to initiate your direct deposit.

I don't see many checks being written in stores, but I do see it. Sometimes it's a business account, or a non-profit. Once in a while someone who obviously has some kind of dependence of this waste of time and paper.

Joe's right, I don't even see that many older ladies, using checks. Now they swipe their cards with panache.

If we were dealing with a retail business, we might have used a credit card, or sent the employee out with a signed but blank check. That would be one of the rare cases in which what we needed was not available from one of our normal industrial suppliers as any price. Our usual suppliers invoiced us either daily or monthly, and we had completely itemized records of what we bought and who bought it. A credit card receipt for xty-ex dollars wasn't especially helpful for that kind of business, and that's assuming we didn't have to track the guy down after receiving the credit card bill.

We did have a few customers who required online billing. Each customer had a different system to learn and comply with. Each one also required physical documentation of charges by way of USPS or Fedex. Gee, that sure saved us a lot of time, and the customer didn't have to write a check. I will concede that our invoices were large enough to be worth the time spent on billin.

I do online banking and have an ATM, but right now I am writing a check
to the IRS

Too bad they don't take credit cards LOL.

I am pretty sure New Mexico does. It was the first state to allow online filing. I like credit cards for online retail purchases. I have had bad experiences with both Consumer Reports and Wired Magazine using my account information to automatically, and oh so helpfully renewing subscriptions. I am not so sure I would trust a government any more that a publisher, and I don't use credit cards for any subscriptions. Just takes too much time to get a credit for the bogus charge.

Businesses routinely pay payroll, sales taxes, and other government fees online, but the system has to be set up in advance. I have never seen a failure in processing.

Ha, Roger. When I got my 2/28 bank statement, the state had deducted our sales tax payment twice. Fortunately, I carry a hefty balance in our account but a business living from day to day might have been royally screwed if the mistake caused the account to go negative.

thought about this thread as I received a check for a brake job.

about half of my customers pay me with a check.

(i don't do plastic)

but most of them are over 50...

I'm having that experience with Verizon now. Many moons ago I had forgotten to send them a check for my cell phone bill. So I called and gave them authorization to tap my checking account. Now they've decided it's cool to do that every month. Instead of sending me a "bill", they send me a "statement" or "invoice" and I don't have to worry about paying. Since I never actually authorized this, I'm not sure how happy I am with it.

Interesting comment, RH. I have stores on both sides of the Blue Ridge Mtns. On the east side (in Charlottesville and Winchester which could be described as more cosmopolitan), 80-85% of sales are on plastic. On the west side (Harrisonburg which is more rural agriculture) plastic accounts for 60% with most of the rest being cash. 60 miles apart by road, but those mountains make a big difference.