Walmart Canada stopped accepting Visa cards at their 16 stores in Manitoba on October 24th, in what is an ongoing dispute over interchange fees. The retailer wants to pay fewer transaction fees to Visa and banning acceptance of the card is the latest protest.
Visa Canada has fired back, by launching a new ad campaign where customers in Manitoba can get a $10 grocery rebate if they spend $50—at any other store other than Walmart.
Visa spokesperson Carla Hindman, when asked if this campaign was targeting shoppers to shop elsewhere instead of Walmart, told the Winnipeg Free Press, “We hope this eases the inconvenience for Visa cardholders in Manitoba who cannot use their card everywhere they may want to.”
Visa had a similar ad campaign in Thunder Bay after Walmart banned its cards in its stores in the city, but that was a $25 credit for grocery purchases of $75 or more.
Alex Roberton, a spokesman for Walmart Canada, when asked about Visa’s new campaign, said “We don’t comment on how other organizations want to promote their brand.”
Visa said it offered Walmart one of the lowest rates for any merchant in Canada, but the retailer wanted an even bigger discount.
Prof. Sylvain Charlebois, from Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia, believes “For Visa to respond (like this) likely means they’ve already seen a dent in their sales.”
How to get your $10 grocery rebate from Visa if you’re in Manitoba? Just head over to this page, fill in your card number and email to register. You’ll have 15 days to make a $50 purchase including taxes to qualify.
The fine print says “Grocery Stores include physical retail locations that sell a full line of food products and are identified in the Visa Systems by Merchant Category 5411,” which excludes convenience stores.
By now, most iPhone and Apple Watch users have a Visa card added to Apple Pay so spending money will be easy. So this means all you need to do is go shopping for groceries and spend $50, and you’ll save 20% off thanks to Visa.
Want to see more of our stories on Google?
P.S. Want to keep this site truly independent? Support us by buying us a beer, treating us to a coffee, or shopping through Amazon here. Links in this post are affiliate links, so we earn a tiny commission at no charge to you. Thanks for supporting independent Canadian media!
I wonder if this will work, because even if you read the fine print, “Grocery Stores include physical retail locations that sell a full line of food products and are identified in the Visa Systems by Merchant Category 5411,”, how is the average person going to know that excludes Walmart?
They might even read the promotion and GO to Walmart and buy groceries there – only finding out a month later that they didnt receive a credit.
Did you not read the article? It says Walmart no longer accepts Visa cards, how does this make sense:
“They might even read the promotion and GO to Walmart and buy groceries there – only finding out a month later that they didnt receive a credit.”
“Did you not read the article? It says Walmart no longer accepts Visa cards” lol and I guess everyone has a copy of this article in their pockets. Not everyone that shops at Walmart reads iPhone in Canada you know.
The point is, you can avail any offer by Visa only “wherever Visa is accepted”.
Walmart not accepting Visa cards has made quite a headline in Manitoba since a few weeks. It is unlikely that Walmart shoppers there are not aware of this.
Actually yeah you’re right, the last sentence in my original post makes no sense. Wow, I must be the type of person that would try to use my Visa card at a Walmart even after having heard they no longer take it in the news 😉
I’ll edit it to make more sense…
No problem it’s all good 🙂
I think it was a mindless move from Walmart. It doesn’t even make sense to stop accepting Visa cards. I think they figured they should do it because they *can*, people won’t stop buying from them and I guess that’s how they get more subscribers for their store credit card.
You didn’t get it yet, did you?
Referring to your sentence “They might even read the promotion and GO to Walmart and buy groceries there – only finding out a month later that they didnt receive a credit.”
You say that they might read the promotion and GO to Walmart and buy groceries there – only finding out a month later that they didnt receive a credit… Problem is that even if they GO to walmart to buy groceries because of this promotion, they won’t actually be able to buy anything cause walmart doesn’t accept Visa, meaning that they won’t have to wait a month to find out they didnt receive a credit, cause they’d have already found out about it by having their Visa card being refused at checkout…
Its allllll good fellas
Honestly, Walmart can go screw themselves! You can’t just tell people how they can or can not pay because you’re being cheap! How are they any different than any other retailer that still accepts Visa?!
costco? they have been doing it for as long as I’ve been alive.
I know it would never happen, but I’d love it if MasterCard and American Express decided to stop processing Walmart payments. I feel that would be the only way to finish off that godawful store.
walmart’s credit card is a master card i don’t think they would just stop processing they would be rather stupid to just throw away what is likely billions of dollars a year because there competitor is no longer accepted.
I’ve already took my business elsewhere since they started this feud.
Too bad when you go to the link and put in your info, comes up saying offer is unavailable and to try again later
3 days ago someone noted (above) that when you go to the link and put in your info, comes up saying offer is unavailable and to try again later. Well, still the same message. Now I’m just getting annoyed with the whole situation.