Woo hoo! Keene Wal-Mart officially accepts Liberty Dollars

[Dave Ridley]

Today Keene Wal-Mart management agreed to accept Liberty Dollars!  If you're ever in line and have trouble spending yours there, just refer the cashier to Corrie or Angela , corrie is a manager, angela is right under him.    Corrie approved it and Angela knows about it.   I parted with $80 worth of them there today including one I sold to a lady just standing there who asked if I could sell her one.

I don't know about the rest of you, but for me getting this Wal Mart on board is like getting a 1 or 2% raise...I buy most of my groceries and many other things at the Keene Wal-Mart and am now effectively getting a 6% discount on all those things!  (at current market rates, and because I'm a Liberty Associate) I buy Liberty Dollars at about $9.36 per ounce but their face value is $10)  I'm not rich but now I'm less unrich!

Of course the store can always become an LD associate and give them out as change, boosting the store's net worth as well.

Anyway I encourage the rest of you to start shopping at the Keene Wal Mart and unloading your LD's there!

Look me up sometime if you want LD's for yourself, if you want more than $100 worth I'll give you a partial discount even if you're not an Associate. 

Also I hear Jim Perry had some progress with a Wal Mart in Nashua...details?

[Ron Helwig]

WooHoo! Good work!

I have a couple hundred available if anyone else needs some - but I'm out in Hampton Beach these days (helping out the dawg some).

It can take almost a month if you order from NORFED directly.

Guess I'd better order some more! 

[dawn]

Wow - I'm surprised that Wal-Mart would do this! Do you happen to know if any other Wal-mart's do it as well?

[KBCraig]

The changed their minds the next day. I think that was covered in a thread on the FSP forum.

Kevin

[Dave Ridley]

On the FSP thread mikefam posted some shocking info which I will post below. If it is correct i looks like we are going to have to take action on this.? It's bad news but also an opportunity.

Here is what I am planning to do for now:

contact the Keene Wal-Mart to see what they will tell me
Contact NORFED and let them know what's happening.
contact Wal Mart HQ in Arkansas (maybe).
contact the Keene Sentinel and let them know about this as a potential news story.

I need others to take action too if you like...maybe call with concern about Correy, ask what happened to him, support him, tell them you want to spend your liberty dollars there, etc.? But don't be hostile at all; we want them to have a graceful way out not back them into a corner.? Ultimately we might need to do a protest in front of the Keene Wal Mart but again we're just trying to urge them to do the right thing not whack them over the head.

LTE's to the Sentinel would be nice.

The goals are:

- Find out for sure what the facts are

- Get Wal-Mart to re-hire Correy if in fact they fired him over this

- Get Keene Wal-Mart to start accepting Liberty Dollars again and perhaps use this as an opportunity to get them accepting LD's nationally.

- Get publicity

- Inform the public that Liberty Dollars are something beneficial; that Correy was right to accept them and that we are right to want to spend them!

Yesterday I sent the following LTE to the Sentinel before I knew what had happened, so I will not be able to send the Sentinel more LTEs for a month:

LTE from me to Keene Sentinel

While the Keene city government works toward a massive tax increase, there is one piece of good "money news" to report.

Management at Keene's Wal-Mart has decided to begin accepting Liberty Dollars as payment.? ?For those who are not yet aware, the Liberty Dollar is a private, silver-backed currency distributed nationally by NORFED and designed to enhance the economies of cities in which it circulates.? ? Basically, it is a one-ounce silver piece with a face value of $10.? ?Unlike the fiat currency in your wallet, it tends to go up in value against the greenback and gives you some of the same powers that our Federal Reserve used to "reserve" for itself.

It only took about 10 minutes for Wal-Mart folks to make this cool decision, and believe you me I rewarded them with a silver shopping spree!? ?I'll be back many times.? Special thanks to Correy (Wal-Mart manager) and also to Angela at the service desk.? Mention them if the cashier doesn't know whether to take the silver.

Other stores in town who have accepted Liberty Dollars from me include City Tire and Cheshire Village Pizza.? ?Thanks, all of you!

Liberty Dollars are good for Keene because they tend to circulate locally and because they have intrinsic value.? Those who are really serious about them can do what the Federal Reserve does with greenbacks:? buy them in bulk at a slight discount and spend them at a slight profit.? They increase your net buying power, and they soar in value when there is an economic or monetary crisis.? ?

So, if you already own Liberty Dollars, I urge you to reward the stores above by spending them there.? If you want to *start* using Liberty Dollars, just visit www.norfed.org or call them at 800.NEW.DOLLAR.? ?A random net search should give you independent background information you need to decide whether you can trust this currency as I do.? ?I certainly trust it more than the Federal dollar, which has lost 98% of its value since the Federal Reserve was founded!

[Dave Ridley]

From mikefam on the fsp forums:

<< I just talked to walmart in Keene,, they are not accepting Norfed Liberty dollars anymore, they have called in the Loss prevention Department of wal mart corp. and are waiting for further word from the home office on weather to accept them or not.  also they refused to exchange them with me  as i offered to come in with $80 and take the silver off their hands, they refused saying that that are holding them.
furthermore Corrie doesn't work there anymore, and they knew of no Angela.  >>

Thus my concern for Corrie

[Michael Fisher]

If I had an employee, I would not allow her to accept them for more than the silver's pure value of $7.02.? If she disregarded this order and took them as payment on purpose, I'd warn her then fire her if she did it again.

Are we now finally responsible for getting some poor Wal-Mart employee fired over our own greed?

I consider the Lie-berty Dollar "discount" to be a form of lesser counterfiet, minor fraud, and petty theft.

Taking "$10" worth of Lie-berty dollars is like accepting $7 in real money and $3 in counterfeit US dollars.? ?

PLEASE consider using pure gold and silver as currency at their daily value, and try to use bullion with the lowest margins in order to minimize loss.

[Russell Kanning]

We don't even know the situation yet.

[Ron Helwig]

PLEASE consider using pure gold and silver as currency at their daily value, and try to use bullion with the lowest margins in order to minimize loss.

But they're not worth their "daily value", they're worth significantly more than that. The spot price is the price you will get ONLY if you:
1) buy over 1,000 ounces at once in large brick form factor and
2) pick it up yourself at the exchange

Mike, what you are asking people to do is to insist that the merchants lose money on each exchange. This anti free market mania of yours sure ought to stop.

The fact is that the Liberty Dollar is the most sucessful free market currency that you can hold in your hands.

Also, it now (or soon) has a competitor in the Phoenix Dollar.

At the time I write this, you can get a Silver Eagle for $9.56 plus shipping even though the spot price is only $7.06. That's almost $2 in additional costs (not including shipping!)
https://online.kitco.com/sellprice/selling.html
The Sliver Maple is only 25 cents cheaper.
And don't forget the tax you are supposed to pay on them.

Saying that the Liberty Dollar is only worth spot price is an outright lie.

[Kat Kanning]

Yes, minting the coins has always added value.  Look at the prices that 1 oz silver coins go for on ebay.  It isn't $7.  Russell likened it to insisting on wholesale whole cow prices for sliced steak.

[FTL_Ian]

Taking "$10" worth of Lie-berty dollars is like accepting $7 in real money and $3 in counterfeit US dollars.   

Taking $10 in Liberty Dollars is exactly like taking one ounce of silver.

Taking $10 in FRN is like taking thin air.  FRNs are the real lie.  I highly suggest you obtain more information, as you sound blissfully uninformed on this issue, Mike.  I too had similar concerns as you, but after looking into the ALD, and then giving it time to turn over in my head, I came to the conclusion that it would be foolish to not support the ALD.

Would you really turn down clients who wanted to pay you in silver?  I hope you don't lose business to the computer repairman who will take the ALD.

For more info:  http://dollar.freetalklive.com

Oh, and there's nothing greedy about making a profit off of spending the ALD.  The banks do it in a major way with the FRN, in comparison, the 5% or so that Liberty Associates make is chump change.  The reason there is a profit to be made is to encourage us to spend them!  Otherwise Gresham's Law proves that we would hoard them.

[Kat Kanning]

I would hesitate to trust Mike Fam after what he apparently did to sabotage Dada's efforts.

[FTL_Ian]

Dada,

I'm watching this situation very closely.  Please keep us informed as to if others follow your suggestions.  Once a few people have done so, and you get some official response from WalMart, please share it, as if the respose is negative, at that point I will call Wal Mart HQ, and see if I can break through some extra gatekeepers and try to talk to someone from the perspective of:

"I host a nationally syndicated talk show, and some of our listeners have told us that you don't take the Liberty Dollar.  I want to get your official word on this, so we can be sure our listeners have the right information."

I may have better luck getting to higher level people, but I want you guys to make some moves first, that way there's some activity for me to point to.

I hope that makes sense.

Thank you!

[KBCraig]

I would hesitate to trust Mike Fam after what he apparently did to sabotage Dada's efforts.

... "sabotage"?

Maybe you know something behind the scenes that hasn't been posted, but from what has been posted, it sounds like Mike just called to verify (as would I before making a special shopping trip).

If there's more to it than that... well, I'm not a fan of infighting, and I would be very disappointed to find out that is what happened.

Kevin

[Dave Ridley]

OK here is the latest info:  I called the Keene wal mart and talked to manager Jessie (I think that was his name, will check my notes).  He says he decided not to accept liberty dollars by making a joint decision with the district manager.  I asked him who do I talk to to get that policy changed, he said the DM and I asked for the guy's number but he said I'll have him call you.

I told him I wanted to make sure corrie had note been fired or something, he said corrie is working at the amherst NH wal mart for the next 2 months.   Jessie said the LD's are only worth 7 bucks a piece.  I told him lumps of silver may be worth 7 bucks a piece; but this is a coin not a lump of silver. 

I thanked him for discussing this with me and told him it would mean a lot of additional business for him if he were to accept LD's in Keene and that it would be good for Keene.   He said that the transaction was written off as a loss because banks don't accept the LD. I told him that makes no sense, just give them out as change.  Like Mikefam I told him I would be happy to accept them back at face value; he said they no longer have them, sent them off to loss mangement or whatever they call that.  Then I got a call from Jim perry today who says he went to spend some at the Amherst wal mart, where corrie now works.  The cashier said wait a minute then proceeded to return with a police officer (and maybe corrie, I forget).  THe officer attempted to confiscate Jim's LD's but Jim wouldn't let him and also refused to show ID.   They said *that* has something to do with loss prevention .  The officer let Jim go but told him he would be in big trouble if the coin turned out to be counterfeit - which of course means that Jim is not going to be in big trouble    Jim told him he would like to give Amherst PD a presentation explaining what LD's are.