As expected, the check-out lines at the Food Coop are very long this weekend. An OTBKB reader and Coop member writes in:
i worked today and it was a bit crazy – the debit system only takes
some types of cards, so that was a bummer since they didn’t take mine,
and the lines got to the longest i’ve ever seen, but for the most part,
same as it usually is on a weekend.
I’d love to see a list of the types of cards the Coop debit system takes. Did this guy have some kind of werid card or what?
Hi:
I’ve been reading the comments about the long lines at the coop. As the director of the vest pocket farmers market on Fifth Ave. between 3rd and 4th St. we want to invite shoppers to the market. This market is developed by Community Markets and it is held every Sunday 11am-5pm. Although we don’t have organic produce it is from local farmers. We also have great baked goods, Amy’s bread, pickles and organic dog treats, and sometimes Indian chutneys.
Miriam
Also as of the weekend, there were 1-2 registers on the express line that weren’t taking ANY kind of debit cards, just cash. That slowed down the express line, but it was still waaay preferable to the regular line. I work my shift tomorrow, god help me!
The sign posted all over the co-op as of Monday PM lists NYCE, CIRRUS, Maestro as good, also Chase/Interlink had been handwritten, and STAR, PLUS, CMA, Instant Cash, WaMu, and The Exchange as bad for now. It said they expect to be able to accept any PIN based debit card soon. Also, the system froze for a couple minutes while the lines were already ridiculously long (not a cart to be had!) in the early evening. There are trained support workers on the floor to help the checkout workers with the new system, which really isn’t that hard to learn.
From what I heard, all debit card systems will eventually be online, probably within a week or two. I worked this weekend and the lines were long for the first hour of the shift when workers were getting used to the new systems, but after that the lines were surprisingly short. In fact at 10:00 am on Sunday there were only a couple people in the regular line.
This progress reporting is the kind of information which should really be on the co-op website foodcoop.com, but instead that site still has the message about the co-op being closed on October 1 for the installation. The website would appear to be someone’s workslot, and it works great at its automated functions (the shift swap classifieds, for example) but probably needs a whole squad of its own, not unlike the Gazette. The only blog and regularly updated page relate to available products.
Thanks, Louise, for picking up the slack.
my USAA card is Cirrus, and it worked… i think Cirrus was on the “good” list as of Friday.
they weren’t taking any washington mutual cards, and i have a fidelity debit card which they weren’t taking because it uses plus, star and interlink, which they don’t take yet.
Good to know. Louise
No, there’s a list up front and at each register. Maybe if you called someone could read it to you, but I recall NYCE being good, CIRRUS not. . .there were others. You have to have a PIN, not a signature. A friend’s Merrill Lynch card didn’t work earlier this week. My debit card is from the ING online bank and worked just fine.