There was a time

back in the days before Northern came to town, before Canada Post and the Bank of Montreal opened the bank branch here, that one could cash a check in any of the stores no trouble and with no surcharge, why even the gas station would take checks for goods purchased.

How times have changed.

On Tuesday I took a stroll over to the gas station to purchase some heating oil, in my pocket was a check from a reputable organization in town made out to a reputable person in town, I had used this method of payment many times over many years.

Two hand written signs posted on walls at the gas station said ‘no checks only cash’. Eh?

I go over to the attendant and ask if this meant “checks of any kind”? “yep” said the attendant. I said “do you know why”? “Nop” said the attendant, “just had an order from the boss of Woodward’s just this morning”.

“Sure wish we had another supplier” was my reply and off I strolled back home.

Having procured some cash at a retailer since I took a stole over to the gas station this morning and purchased some heating oil, the up side was that it cost me just over 2 cents a liter less than it would have yesterday, the down side is that it is still $253 and change to get 45 gallons delivered.

This is the second check on checks that Woodward’s has imposed on us.

The first was the non acceptance of personal checks a few years back, that pissed me off but I understood that maybe the rubber ones were becoming an issue. Ok, they still took checks from institutions, government and other well known organizations, until Tuesday that is.

Me thinks the bank in town may have had a role to play in this; it has already stopped handing out cash for large checks from one of the retailers. The retailer did not have an account at that bank, but used to cash checks to have cash on hand for customers. You could take a pay check in to the store and cash it no charge, good business sense one would think, and it avoided the other option of the manager having to bring in large wads of cash from Goose Bay. No more says the bank.
You can still cash checks at the store but not as readily as before. Other stores will still cash your check, but there are oft times when there is no cash in town on paydays, and these times seem to be on the increase.

Northern has always charged $3.00 a check; the other two or three convenience stores do not charge a fee.
I should put a proviso on that Northern thing, one time a manager decided that it seemed a bit unfair to charge that fee, so he came up with a great idea. For every check cashed there he charged the 3 bucks but gave out $3.00 worth of coupons that could only be spent in store, every body happy right?
Wrong, he got in deep doo doo when honchos in Winnipeg found out, he did not give a rats arse by then as he had said “adios” to the firm and moved to Alberta.

Yep we be catching up with the first world alright. Credit cards or debit cards used to purchase a drink and a bar, a green ATM in Northern, one in the bar, like you got’a have cash for the VLT’s.

I’m no prude, I use banks and credit union, have a credit card, pay our bills online, have one check account, no debit card. But it grates me to pay these high fees, and if the opportunity is there, and it makes good business sense for the business, then banks or other influences should not interfere.

Nice and sunny today, temperatures getting up to 7 or so still, maybe a bit higher today.