Huntsville Merchants Declare War on Trading Stamps
Local business owners unite to end a lucrative, one-sided loyalty program that had been draining local profits.
The story, cleaned up
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Huntsville, Sept. 1—In virtue of an agreement operative today among the leading merchants of Huntsville, the trading stamp business, which for some time has been worked here at an estimated profit to the company of one thousand dollars a month, is to become a thing of the past. The merchants, having grown tired of what they termed a one-sided bargain and having failed to drive the company out of business by legal process, signed an iron-clad agreement to stop taking trading stamps after today.
“The merchants having grown tired of what they termed a one-sided bargain... they signed an iron-clad agreement to stop taking trading stamps.”
The struggle against third-party loyalty programs and the ‘middleman tax’ on small businesses remains a relevant topic today as merchants navigate digital platform fees and delivery service commissions.
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