Comments on: Wal-Mart’s Bank Plan Withdrawal: Opponents Should Be Careful What They Wished For

By: TBlumer

TBlumer — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 15:27:11 +0000

A Wal-Mart bank would pay for use of the Visa/MC name and would have Visa/MC charges to pay for interchange, but their part of interchange processing would be (presumably) cheaper. Target has said they have saved money, so why shouldn’t Wal-Mart be able to?

By: Triston

Triston — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 13:30:02 +0000

Sure, I’d like to see WalMart do its merchant processing in house but wouldn’t Visa or MC still have to charge a some kind of interchange for use of their name? I guess the fee would be lower, which would mean savings for the consumer.

By: TBlumer

TBlumer — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 16:30:23 +0000

#5, you have described exactly why WM SHOULD go into banking. From a biz standpoint, if they lower their interchange costs by doing a lot of the merchant processing in-house with their WM Visa or MC, they can pass on the savings. Target has claimed significant savings from what they have done along similar lines. Why shouldn’t WallyWorld get to do the same?

By: Triston

Triston — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 14:52:50 +0000

It was a bad idea for wal mart to go into banking anyway. The banking/credit card industry does have a monopoly and they control the way retailers do businesses. Look at interchange for example.

By: TBlumer

TBlumer — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 12:25:29 +0000

#1, I’d be more impressed if there had been opposition to any of the other 60 industrial banks previously approved, including Target. And banking is closer to a monoposony industry than retailing, or hadn’t you noticed that BofA, Chase, and others getting ever-bigger?

#3, it will indeed be ironic if WM gets into lines of business beyond what it originally intended with its FDIC application.

By: The Writing On The Wal » Blog Archive » BE CAREFUL WHAT WE WISH FOR…?

Tue, 20 Mar 2007 11:52:26 +0000

[...] That’s the warning from blogger Tom Blumer. He thinks that Wal-Mart’s decision to withdraw from the banking arena and re-focus it’s attention on making the Walton family wealthier was a bad one. Blumer points to what he calls the company’s Plan B. [...]

By: MY COMMENTS…

MY COMMENTS… — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 11:32:03 +0000

[...] 0729 Wal-Martâ€™s Bank Plan Withdrawal: Opponents Should Be Careful What They Wished For [...]

By: Jeff Hess

Jeff Hess — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 11:29:11 +0000

Shalom Tom,

As one of the critics who always puts his byline up high, I have to say that I’ve never had any opposition to Wal-Mart involving itself in what it says it wants to involved in: processing its own credit and debit card transactions.

But like Rep. Paul Gillmor (R-Ohio), I just don’t trust Wal-Mart to do what it says it will do.

Competition is a good thing. The problem is that Wal-Mart doesn’t compete; it crushes the competition. And Americans are waking up to what the rest of the Industrial World is telling them: monopsonies are not a good thing.

B’shalom,

Jeff Hess

http://www.havecoffeewillwrite.com
http://www.thewritingonthewal.net