Getting local businesses to accept silver and gold

[sratiug]

What the hell kind of argument is this?

Let's break it down for you.

The business has to pay for:

Rent

Inventory

Labor

Advertising

With the exception of inventory, and occasionally labor (raises), all of those costs are fixed to a certain dollar figure each and every month.

A drop in the value of the dollar does not create huge price changes (internally) for any of those costs.

Here is a silver chart:

If a business were to accept silver, and then pay its suppliers and laborers in dollars, it would've required constant adjustments in the price of its goods. Silver lost 50% of its value in just one year, only to gain it all back a year later. Prices would have to be changed constantly to reflect that massive change in price because its suppliers are not pricing their goods in ounces of silver. They're pricing them in dollars.

Are you saying that fhe fed note has retained its value better than silver over the long run? Fluctuations will happen. Every time I go to the grocery store or the gas station I see prices that have changed. Most go up. The price of oil skyrocketed and bankrupted thousands of people in the US within a year also. There have been riots all over the world due to the collapse of paper value versus groceries. Shit happens. But people don't wipe their ass with silver and gold, they wipe it with paper and throw it away.

If your rent is a fixed price in paper the real price goes up and down with the value of the paper just like everything else. Your landlord just waits as long as he can to adjust the price to not run off his customer.

 

[sratiug]

Then you have the cost of having to convert the silver to dollars to pay your suppliers and employees with (again adding to costs).. The tax man won't let you pay in silver and the bank probably won't let you deposit silver (execpt maybe in a safe deposit or other storage unit) so you have storage costs if you don't resell it. A company would be adding complexity and costs to accept silver and/or gold so they would have to be making more profit on silver/ gold transasctions to cover those costs. Would you as a consumer be willing to pay a higher price for things for the right to pay in silver or gold?

A business cares basically about one thing- their bottom line. How are you going to improve their bottom line? Can they improve their profits by using gold/ silver for transactions? You will have to be able to demonstrate this to get companies to go along with the idea.

On the consumer side, it is far easier to carry paper or a plactic card for purchases. Why has the effort to make a metal dollar failed- despite repeated attempts over decades? Because people don't want to use them- it is preferable to carry a smaller, easy to fold paper one. Where are the consumers going to get their silver to go spend in the stores? That will have a cost for them as well. Buy money to go spend it at a store? Why go through the extra step? It is not necessary. Some 90% of all transactions now are electronic anyways. Going to coins would be seen as a step back to most people.

These problems are well known and are caused largely by legal tender laws. We all know silver will not replace paper overnight. So I think it is more valuable to talk about ways smaller local businesses can use silver as a local currency, especially with the multitudes of "buy local" campaigns around the country. Our little town of 15,000 had a buy local campaign last year, and they are not known for activism, lol. In this case, many of the disadvantages you mention become advantages as the currency stays in town instead of being sucked away by out of state corporations and governments and the debasing by the Federal Reserve that you so love.

 

[Zippyjuan]

If you want me, as a business, to accept gold and silver in payment in addition to federal reserve notes, show me how I am going to make more money by doing so than I do now. Otherwise I am not going to use it. Sell me on the idea. From a business standpoint.

 

[Rampart]

The problem with the AOCS rounds is the huge mark up over spot silver. For just $1.80 over spot, I would rather spend the money on Silver Eagles. They are widely recognized and accepted by people who take payment in silver.

Some stores are already accepting payment in junk silver... check out this video. George makes a transaction at a local market using a junk bag YouTube - Junk Silver Coins are being used in Grocery Stores: George4title

 

[hugolp]

If you want me, as a business, to accept gold and silver in payment in addition to federal reserve notes, show me how I am going to make more money by doing so than I do now. Otherwise I am not going to use it. Sell me on the idea. From a business standpoint.

If enough people is commited to the idea, the business that accept gold and silver will sell more.

 

[Jordan]

Are you saying that fhe fed note has retained its value better than silver over the long run? Fluctuations will happen. Every time I go to the grocery store or the gas station I see prices that have changed. Most go up. The price of oil skyrocketed and bankrupted thousands of people in the US within a year also. There have been riots all over the world due to the collapse of paper value versus groceries. Shit happens. But people don't wipe their ass with silver and gold, they wipe it with paper and throw it away.

If your rent is a fixed price in paper the real price goes up and down with the value of the paper just like everything else. Your landlord just waits as long as he can to adjust the price to not run off his customer.

Fluctuations do happen, you're right. And no, obviously paper money hasn't held up to gold or silver in the long run. However, business decisions aren't made for the next 100 years. Or the past 100 years.

The prices of commodities in terms of paper dollars do rise and fall. It is much easier to buy corn, soybeans, whatever at daily changing market prices. However, rent, labor, supplies, etc are not as centralized, those costs do not fluctuate as quickly as commodities do relative to paper dollars. If the market price of labor were $8.00 one day, then $7.64 an hour the next day, you're not going to go to your workers and say "hey, today's work is worth $7.64 an hour." Likewise, the market value of the place you're renting rises and falls too, but you're not going to pay your landlord $500 one month then $2500 the next.

So, what you would have is a business that accepts a currency that rises and falls faster relative to its fixed costs than a paper dollar would. I don't know why you can't accept that.

 

[Maximilian American]

Our business accepts Gold and Silver as payments for our raw food products. Our current in-season product is all-natural delicious raw Macadamia nuts. Visit our site at www.FarmFreshRawFoods.com
If you're interested in purchasing our products with Gold and Silver, please contact us at [email protected] for our terms and rates.

P.S. Take that Uncle Sam!