Name: Lori Burton

Age: 43

Years in business: 6

Hometown: Marlborough

Family: Husband, mark; daughter, Amelia, 12

Hobbies: Jewelry-making, travel, movies, dogs (we have 3)

Name of business: Serendipity

Address of business: 63B Main St., Hudson

Phone number of business: 978-562-7756

Website: serendipityinhudson.com

In three sentences, tell us how you ended up in this line of work

After teaching school for 15 years, I knew my next career adventure would require that I work for myself. With an art-based background and strength for sales, opening my own gallery shop made way too much sense not to attempt. I love selling locally produced, handmade art!

What are two memories from your career that stick with you the most?

I opened my shop on April 1 (April Fool’s Day), 2005, and my parents had absolutely no idea. It was by far a terrific surprise for them. A second wonderful memory was when Serendipity was featured on the show “Chronicle” in 2008 – what an honor!

What do you most like and least like about your work?

the things about my work that I enjoy the most are the many satisfied and delighted customers that I have met over the years. It is a truly wonderful feeling to know that you are providing awesome customer service and that your products are all made by hand, in the U.S., with love. I really don’t have a “least” like about my work.

What makes your business unusual?

our business is unusual because of the many services we offer in addition to selling handmade gifts. we offer jewelry-making workshops, beading birthday parties for children, ladies nights out, summer camp, custom jewelry design and repair services as well as fabulous art.

What advice do you have for someone who wants to open a business?

love what you do and be passionate about it; be willing to work extremely hard and appreciate the support your friends and family will provide; and do your financial homework and do not be undercapitalized.

Submit your profile

Follow the above format and send it to editor Paul Crocetti at .

Businessperson Profile: Lori Burton, of Serendipity in Hudson

Businessperson Profile: Lori Burton, of Serendipity in Hudson is a post from: LovingCareGifts.com: Gifts With Love & Care

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A gift card program by the Downtown Development Association is giving Downtown Staunton’s business quite the boost. The cards are easy to use both for both shoppers and sellers.

The program launched in 2007, and anyone can buy a card. they come in ten, twenty, and fifty dollar increments. You can use these cards at more than eighty locally-owned stores downtown.

Local businesses say that these gift cards have really improved their sales.

One toy store owner who sells and redeems these gift cards in her downtown store, says that they are gaining popularity because of a push to buy local.

“People are continuing to buy locally. They’re understanding that there’s value in buying from local, independently-owned businesses,” said owner Erin Blanton.

Last year, there was more than a 40% increase in people who participated in the program.

The money from this program goes straight to the stores and reinvests itself downtown. Staunton Downtown Director Julie Markowitz says this can only help.

“You’ve got to really support your neighbors. These are people you know, they’re your neighbors, they’re your family, they’re people your children go to school with. There’s a human factor there that’s really important, too,” said Markowitz.

The Staunton Downtown Development Association sold $50,000 worth of the card to help local businesses in 2011. and they hope that means there are good times ahead economically in 2012.

The cards are sold at five local businesses, and the past couple years have been the strongest.

“It’s a really positive thing for everyone because it has that ripple effect in the community. it strengthens the entire economy,” said Markowitz.

For business owners like Blanton, the gift cards have helped out their stores.

“The money that’s the person’s, when they spend the gift card, is staying right here in the local economy, and that means a lot to me: especially as an independent business owner,” said Blanton.

And she plans on using the system to help her business as long as it’s around.

© Copyright 2012 WHSV / Gray Television Group, Inc. all Rights Reserved.

A New Type of Gift Card Helps Local Business

A New Type of Gift Card Helps Local Business is a post from: LovingCareGifts.com: Gifts With Love & Care

What would you do if your biological father deserted your family?

What would you do if he left you and your mother behind when you were just a toddler, forcing her to work two jobs to support you while he wasted his life on drugs and alcohol?

This is what Curtis Martin did: he showed up unannounced at his dad’s apartment on Father’s Day in 1998, insisted he wear a blindfold, and led him outside to the backseat of a waiting car.

Martin drove him to a condominium complex, led him up a short flight of stairs, and brought him inside one of the units. the father could only smell the scent of freshly cleaned carpets as he waited for further instructions.

“take off your blindfold,” Martin said.

The father did as he was told.

“Welcome home, Dad,” the son said.

The father looked around and saw an ivory-colored sofa, a new television and decorations on all the walls. the two-bedroom condo, completely furnished, was a gift — all the father had to do was bring over his clothes.

But Martin wasn’t finished. the former Jets star and current Hall of Fame finalist led his dad outside again, where Curtis Martin Sr. found a Cadillac Seville, used but in mint condition, with a huge red bow on the roof.

“Happy Father’s Day, Curt,” said Rochella Dixon, the woman he left behind all those years ago.

That’s when the tears started. the father didn’t know what to say, so he thanked the star NFL running back who welcomed him back into his life, and then he thanked God for giving him such a forgiving son.

• • •

Curtis Martin is up for the Pro Football Hall of Fame for the second straight year this week, and if you considered nothing but his football résumé, they should be preparing his bust for Canton.

He is the fourth all-time leading rusher in NFL history with 14,101 yards, behind only Emmitt Smith, Walter Payton and Barry Sanders. he was one of the most consistent and durable backs of his generation, a player who topped 1,000 yards in each of his first 10 seasons.

That his coach and mentor with the Jets and the New England Patriots, Bill Parcells, is also a finalist, makes the potential story even sweeter. Martin relishes the idea that he and the man who has played a more important role in his life than anyone would be inducted together.

But, for Martin, his football accomplishments tell only part of his story. the Hall of Fame is supposed to “honor individuals who have outstanding contributions to professional football,” according to its mission statement, and “promote the positive values of the sport.”

No one has represented the game better than Martin, who retired in 2005. he told a story last week about the day he was drafted in 1995, when he was supposed to be excited about the big paychecks and bright lights but confided in his mentor, the Rev. Leroy Joseph, that he wasn’t sure he wanted a career in football.

“Curtis, all the things you want to do for people?” Joseph told him. “maybe football is just the vehicle to do it.” So that’s the way he chose to approach his time in the NFL. A lot of athletes talk about being a role model. Martin built his career around it. he survived the gangs of the Homewood section of Pittsburgh, where bloodshed and death were a part of his life. he once found his loving grandmother stabbed to death by a man who later said he needed money to pay his phone bill.

He made it to the NFL and became a star. he has built a successful business career since his retirement and talks about someday buying an NFL team. But to Martin, all of that only matters if others see his example and follow him.

“I wanted to inspire others to do the same, and not to settle for the hand they’ve been dealt,” he said. “That’s what I want to stand for. I came into the NFL with the goal of being an inspiration.”

Part of that, he said, is not letting the bitterness from a difficult upbringing take over your life. that means finding forgiveness for people, even the father that abandoned your family.

• • •

Curtis Martin Sr. didn’t expect forgiveness. he knew he had everything he wanted in his life — a caring wife and a young son — and threw it away.

He was done with a four-year stint in the Army when he met Rochella Dixon in McKeesport, Pa., his hometown, in 1973. Money was tight, but the couple did its best, until Martin Sr. strayed.

He said peer pressure led him to smoke his first marijuana joint when he was 18, and slowly, that led to “everything else.” he said he left his family in 1978, and the downward spiral was swift.

“there was a time when the only thing I owned was the clothes I was wearing,” he said in a 2004 interview. “I lived in shelters, parks, wherever. From ’85 to ’90, those were the worst years. That’s when I got mixed up with that crack cocaine. I wouldn’t wish that on my worst enemy.

“I had nothing.”

Those worst years coincided with the sudden emergence of a young high school football star that shared his name. Martin only started playing football at Taylor-Allderdice High as a senior because his mother wanted him to do something away from their awful neighborhood, and because the coach, Mark Wittgartner, had seen his physical talents in gym class.

Martin was a natural from the first moment he touched the football. “know something, do something, be something” is the motto at Taylor-Allderdice, and the crowds at games quickly understood that Martin’s career would go far beyond its all-dirt field.

But his father was not there to witness it.

“I never held a grudge,” Martin said. “It was him not wanting to be involved in my life. I understand that. he was strung out on drugs. I understand the shame that he had and I never held it against him. It was always in my plans to do something for him, but I wanted to make sure he was fully rehabbed.”

• • •

In 1990, Martin Sr. said he checked himself into a veteran’s hospital in Columbus, Ohio. he stayed two weeks. Then he entered a rehabilitation center for a six-month stay. When that was through, Martin Sr. asked to stay longer.

“I just got sick and tired and sick and tired and sick and tired of being down in the dump and not having anything and being abused,” Martin Sr. said.

“I’ll tell you the truth, the first five or six years (after leaving rehab) I still had yearnings to use. But thank goodness to God, I didn’t. It was a tough fight. Even when you sleep, you’re dreaming about it.”

The Star-Ledger spoke with Martin Sr. in 2004, when the Jets were preparing to play his hometown Steelers in the playoffs. Curtis Martin Jr. asked that the newspaper not publish the story then because the wounds within the family still had not completely healed.

That process took time. Martin gave his father those incredible gifts on Father’s Day in 1998, but this was not a one-time thing. he visited. he called. he became a part of his life, and in turn, Martin Sr. stayed true to his promise to stay clean.

“he could have just blocked me out of his life, period, if that’s what he chose to do,” Curtis Martin Sr. said. “I thank God he is a forgiving son, a forgiving person, and he let me back in.”

How did Martin forgive?

“You know something?” Martin answered. “I realized, where I come from and especially with all the things my mother had gone through, there’s a bitterness that gets embedded in a person’s heart.

“I’ve seen so many people with that bitterness in their lives, and I’ve found the difference between me and a lot of others is I chose to forgive.

“to me, coming from where I’ve come from, seeing what I’ve seen, God forgave me, which is pretty miraculous to me. we all make mistakes. God forgave me, who am I not to forgive others?”

• • •

Martin spent another Father’s Day with his dad in 2009, but this one was much different. Cancer had attacked his lungs, brain and liver. the father was just 58, but he was running out of time.

The son returned to New York and, the next day, called to see how the father was doing.

“Hey man, I got to get ready to go,” his father said.

Martin thought his father, a man of few words for his entire life, had to get off the phone for a doctor’s visit or something else. But it turns out, it was his way of saying goodbye. he died the next day.

“he and I never bonded like we did those last two weeks he was alive,” Martin said. “before he died, he was a man at peace. I never wanted to be like my father in any way, but when it comes to the day I die, I hope I can be like him.”

Martin believes the decision to forgive his father helped the family, including his mother, heal. Dixon was even cooking meals for the man who left her, Martin said, as his health deteriorated.

“at his funeral, my mother came to me and said, ‘You know something, I am so glad you were not how I was. the fact that you forgave him helped me forgive him,’ ” Martin said. “She told me, ‘It would be so hard if he died and I never forgave him. I’m so grateful that you helped me do that.’ ”

Martin became a father himself Dec. 15, welcoming a daughter named Ava into the world, and has spent the last few weeks dealing with the emotions all new dads feel. every noise from the crib will make him jump up from the bed to check on her, so he’s sleeping in another room.

As for the Hall of Fame vote this week, Martin would love to stand at Parcells’ side as the coach and player are inducted. But what he did in football will never define him as a man.

Which, of course, is exactly why he belongs.

Steve Politi: ; twitter.com/StevePoliti

More from Steve Politi

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• Politi: Greg Schiano leaves Rutgers, Tim Pernetti with a tough task

• Politi: Greg Schiano leaves Rutgers in good shape, but without finishing job

Politi: Jets’ Curtis Martin has shown greatness beyond football, including forgiving his father

Politi: Jets’ Curtis Martin has shown greatness beyond football, including forgiving his father is a post from: LovingCareGifts.com: Gifts With Love & Care

VirtueOnline – News – As Eye See It – HOUSTON, TX: The three distinct phases of my life with God

VirtueOnline – News – As Eye See It – HOUSTON, TX: The three distinct phases of my life with God is a post from: LovingCareGifts.com: Gifts With Love & Care

The refrigerator door is where parents often show off their children’s artwork and other achievements.But it looks different in the apartment of Sarah and Eric Fox-Linton.theirs is filled with photos and letters from children in Uganda and Mexico, children the Atchison, Kan., couple sponsor through Compassion International.Compassion is one of several organizations, such as World Vision, that sponsors children overseas.Married in 2008, the Fox-Lintons have no children. Eric is a physics professor at Benedictine College in Atchison, and Sarah is working on her masters in higher education administration.But the pride they have in a little boy from Uganda and two girls from Mexico is almost equal to that of parents with biological children. under a living room end table is a folder for each child, filled with letters and photos that show each one’s progress. The couple’s conversation reflects their pride.“Abraham is such a special little guy to us,” Sarah said. The couple started sponsoring him soon after they were married, when he was 5 years old. He lives with his parents and six siblings.“We wanted a child from Uganda because of the war and the kidnapping of kids there,” Sarah said.“It’s been wonderful to see his progress,” she said. “in the first picture he was barefoot, his clothes were too big for him, and he was not smiling.“then in his next picture, he looked like a completely different child. He was wearing shoes and clothes that fit him, and he had a happy smile. in the third photo, he was wearing a vest and shorts, shoes and socks. It was a world of difference from the first picture.”They send him money for Christmas, and he spends most of it to buy farm animals and food for his family and to make donations to his church, Eric said. Compassion International requires sponsors to contribute $38 a month for each child and to write to them. The organization partners with churches in 26 countries. Along with Compassion personnel, who are natives of the countries, the churches provide Christian training, education and health care.“We believe that as God changes the life of a child, he or she can change their community and country and the world,” said Amy Tumpes, the Southwest regional ministry manager for Compassion. Shirley Greenlee of Mission is the Compassion church team leader at the United Methodist Church of the Resurrection in Leawood, which has one of the largest programs in the area, with more than 1,000 sponsors. She has sponsored a girl from Honduras for seven years, and when that girl graduates from school, she will have learned a trade, Greenlee said. She likes that the program offers a hand up and not just a hand out. “Helping these kids get an education and to know Jesus Christ helps them to help their country,” she said. “One young lady who had been a sponsored child got her education and now is in the Parliament in Uganda.” Sarah Fox-Linton said it is great to see the children grow and learn. For instance, at first people from Compassion helped Abraham write letters. now he writes them himself.“He is always saying, ‘thank you,’ and he prays for us a lot and wants to know about where we live,” Sarah said, adding that one day the couple would like to visit him.They did get to visit the two girls they sponsor in Mexico. They started sponsoring Daniela, who was 9, and Anayeli, who was 7, in March of last year, and in July of 2011 they went to Mexico to see them. First was Daniela, who lives with an aunt in far southern Mexico. Her mother moved to another city to work and visits when she can.“all the people from Compassion were excited to see us,” Sarah said. “We were overwhelmed.” The church had a big dinner for them, and the couple distributed gifts to the children, including books for Daniela, who likes to read.Sarah said they had sent Daniela a picture from their wedding, and her aunt had hung it on the porch. “that was a surprise, to come to their house and see our wedding photo,” she said.The next day they visited Anayeli, who lives with a grandmother in another part of Mexico. all the children at the church that runs the Compassion project ran out to greet them. The couple looked at the crowd, trying to pick out Anayeli. there was a ceremony first, and then Anayeli was brought out.“She was just so precious and excited to meet us,” Sarah said. “She was kind of shy, but as the day went on she warmed up to us.“We gave her a book, a backpack with school supplies and paper dolls. She had never seen paper dolls, and then said, ‘how pretty.’“We also brought presents for both girls to give to their friends and cousins. and each of them surprised us with gifts they had made for us. We thought we would come back home with lighter suitcases.”They later went with Anayeli and her grandmother to a river where they wash their clothes. Eric said that visiting the girls let them see the impact the program has on the children.“Poverty is not just a lack of material goods, but also a lack of hope,” he said. “You have to give them a sense that they are loved by others, and they are given hope through this program. Through the Bible teaching they learn that they are important in God’s eyes, and this really increases their self-worth.”He said that when he reads about the lives of children in the program and about those waiting for a sponsor, it gives him perspective on his own worries.“It makes my everyday problems seem small.”Eric said some people may want to help children in the United States, and that is good, “as long as you are doing something.”“But I feel the need is greater overseas for a lot of kids,” he said. “For instance, even the poorest people here can get clean drinking water, whereas that is a challenge for a lot of kids overseas.” The couple said they enjoy sponsoring the children and writing and praying for them together.“It’s the highlight of our day when we get a new letter in the mail from one of them,” Sarah said.She has learned that it’s easy to spend money on yourself, but generosity is more rewarding.“I would so much rather have Abraham than an extra $38 a month to eat out or have a better cellphone plan.”

Compassion International gives kids a hand up

Compassion International gives kids a hand up is a post from: LovingCareGifts.com: Gifts With Love & Care

Prince William and Kate Middleton, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge wave to the crowds in Calgary (Pic: Getty Images)

A sleeping bag, snow goggles, a papier-mâché doll and a jar of Vegemite were just some of the unusual gifts given to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge last year.

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The bizarre items were on an official list released by St James’s Palace yesterday of items given to the royal couple on their first foreign trip to Canada and the US last summer.

The newlyweds returned home with mosquito traps, cowboy hats, hockey jerseys, stuffed toys, wine coasters and bread board among the hoard of gifts.

Kate, who celebrated her 30th birthday earlier this week, seemed to win in the popularity stakes, receiving more gifts from members of the public than her husband.

A jar of Vegemite was among the bizarre gifts given to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge

She was also given a knitted prayer shawl, a wicker flower basket and a rag doll, although William wasn’t left out as he bagged a flying helmet and a tartan waistcoat.

The gifts weren’t all random, as Kate was also presented with a 302-diamond brooch and William received a pair of platinum cufflinks.

The jewellery, listed simply as ‘brooch’ in the document, is actually a specially-commissioned platinum piece by Hollywood jeweller Harry Winston, with diamonds in the shape of a polar bear.

Prince William and Kate Middleton smile as they receive Team Canada hockey jerseys

The items together include a total of 692 sparklers. They were handed over by Floyd K. Roland, Premier of the Northwest Territories in Canada, as the royals visited the town of Yellowknife.

The couple also received an iPad from the Governor of California as listed on the 14-page rundown of gifts.

Clarence House spokesman insisted last night it would be “discourteous to highlight whether a gift was valuable”.

Kate Middleton given sleeping bag, goggles and Vegemite among bizarre royal tour gifts

Kate Middleton given sleeping bag, goggles and Vegemite among bizarre royal tour gifts is a post from: LovingCareGifts.com: Gifts With Love & Care

When he heard the truck, “vrrrrooooom,” Brian Nettles knew the driver would never make the curve.

He told his girlfriend so. a second later, they heard the crash. they jumped in his truck and headed out to Bells Ferry Road, a narrow two-lane in rural Harrison County. the truck was flattened. It had flipped over and over and landed against a telephone pole. Miraculously, the driver stood in the middle of the road.

Nettles and his girlfriend, Rhonda Lawson, saw a car in the ditch. the woman behind the wheel was clearly dead. Lawson, a respiratory therapist, headed to the car. Nettles moved his truck to shine his headlights on it. “There’s kids in the car,” Lawson called out. one boy sat upright, unconscious. a smaller boy lay across his lap.

She heard the larger boy snorting. he was trying to catch his breath. the smaller boy had no pulse, so she focused on the other child. At first she thought his teeth had fallen out. But then she realized he had been wearing plastic vampire teeth, the kind that glow in the dark.

Once she removed them, the boy could breathe. he had a faint pulse. When he stopped breathing, she breathed for him. Lawson and Nettles managed to pull him into the ditch, where she continued to breathe into his lungs. She kept telling him, “It’s going to be OK,” until an ambulance arrived.

The accident, she and Nettles said, was something no human should see, much less experience. they could not sleep for four days. even now, more than two months later, they think every day about it. Sights and sounds — such as a racing engine driving past the curve — trigger images from the evening of Oct. 28.

Nettles was struck by the upheaval the accident caused. the man, driving about twice the 35-mph speed limit, according to the accident report, told Nettles and Lawson he was just trying to get home for dinner with his family.

“a wreck like this changes so many lives in an instant,” Nettles wrote in an email to the Sun Herald. he wants people to realize — on New Year’s Eve and every day — they need to slow down, pay attention and drive sober.

Fun evening turns tragic

The evening had been enjoyable for Elaine Clark, 61, her grandson Alijah Osborne and his best friend, Jordan Jones, both 10. Clark doted on her grandchildren, who called her Nana. She’d taken Alijah and Jordan to the fall festival at their school, DeLisle Elementary.

Alijah’s big sister, 15-year-old Alanna Necaise, talked by cellphone to her Nana, who said they were headed home. When they failed to arrive 10 minutes later, Alanna tried to call her Nana. the phone rang and rang. Alanna knew something was terribly wrong. She called her mother, Didi Wahl.

Aftermath of an accident:Many lives shattered in an instant

Aftermath of an accident:Many lives shattered in an instant is a post from: LovingCareGifts.com: Gifts With Love & Care

In 2011, consumers loaded about $460 billion onto prepaid cards. According to research from the Mercator Advisory Group this figure will balloon 50 percent over the next two years, reaching $685 billion by 2014. Prepaid cards have come a long way since Blockbuster and K-Mart introduced the first non-phone cards in the mid-90s.

Currently when consumers think of making a gift card purchase, they imagine a supermarket or drugstore spinner rack (also known as a “card mall”). But one company intends to change the picture in consumers’ minds, persuading them instead to think of their neighborhood ATM.

According to Better ATM Services president and CEO Todd Nuttall, there couldn’t be a more natural combination than ATMs and prepaid cards.

“That whole [prepaid] industry is hungry for better ways to get into consumers’ hands,” Nuttall said, “Then you turn and look at the whole ATM world — after 40 years, they’re already in all the best locations in the world, right? By definition an ATM is located where people are walking, working, playing … And so if you had a vending machine business you couldn’t pick a better place than where ATMs already are.”

Banking on this belief, better ATM Services launched its first ATM-based prepaid card program less than two months ago in partnership with Triton Systems and a trio of Arizona-based credit unions. And so far, Nuttall’s theory seems to be holding up.

It’s all in the cards

The concept behind ATM-dispensed prepaid cards is quite simple, involving minimal modifications to a Triton multi-cassette ATM (“two little hardware components,” Nuttall said) and a few slight menu and command features to the software that runs it.

The tricky part, Nuttall said, was developing a card that an ATM could dispense.

“One of the more difficult challenges was to adapt the whole visa world to a plastic that will work in a cash machine, but is still good — durable, usable enough to where it works at the point of sale just like people are accustomed to,” he said.

Better ATM Services brought together all the players — Visa, Triton Systems, printing companies and others — to develop a workable card. the end product was a card made of a poly-based material similar to that used for transit passes around the world. It is one-third the thickness of a PVC credit card and is produced on a sheet sized to fit in a cash cassette.

story continues below…

Each poly sheet is divided into three snap-apart panels: the first contains the card itself; the second provides bankcard compliance information, instructions for use and phone numbers to call should the card become lost or unusable; the third offers available space for a coupon or promotional message. the pilot program offered a coupon for $10 off services from a popular local automotive service chain.

“We found in research that everyone struggles when they pay a fee for a card but they do it because of the convenience factor,” Nuttall said. “But when you get an offer or something of value, Coke or a free dinner or breakfast or something, you feel much better about it. You feel you got something for what you did. So you’re actually bringing that additional value to the consumer where they get the card and they also get an incentive coupon.”

How it works

To buy a gift card from an ATM, the customer dips or swipes his or her ATM/debit card as usual and selects the gift card purchase option from the ATM menu. the customer is prompted to choose a dollar amount to load onto the card (the pilot program offered choices in $25 denominations). the ATM then picks the card and delivers it to the customer via the cash dispenser. the amount on the card is deducted from the user’s bank account just as it would be for any cash-out transaction.

The cards in the pilot program were preactivated, but better ATM Services and Triton Systems are now finishing development of a soon-to-be-released program that will activate a card upon purchase and load it with any amount the customer chooses.

“That’s a big benefit for the merchants and the distributors out there deploying ATMs in the gift card programs because now they don’t have to have a lot of capital tied up in a preloaded gift card that’s loaded into the ATM,” said James Phillips, vice president of sales and marketing at Triton Systems. “We really think that’s where it will take off.”

In the variable-load system, a scanner would be added to the ATM to identify the particular card and a dollar value would be assigned to that card number. purchase and use information would then be tracked on the back end by a proprietary service provided by better ATM Services. Phillips said the variable load system would be demoed at the ATMIA US Conference Feb. 29 through March 2 in San Antonio.

To tap into the gift card revenue stream, a merchant or ISO must use ATMs outfitted with multiple cassettes — one for cash and at least one for gift cards. Currently, not many US vendors offer this capacity, Phillips said. Those using Triton’s newer machines, the RL2000 and RL5000, can do a field upgrade to add a Talaris NMD 50 or NMD 100 multi-cassette dispenser. Phillips also said the timing might be right for deployers who are already pulling older machines to comply with new ADA and EMV requirements.

How it’s worked so far

For Credit Union West, adding gift cards to ATMs made sense, said CEO Robert MacGregor. “We saw it as a really progressive step to giving our members a new product and a better level of service with basically little modification to our current systems. We saw that as a real plus to be able to offer this extra feature right from the safety and security of the ATM.”

Though the final numbers aren’t yet available, both MacGregor and Nuttall said the launch didn’t just meet their expectations — it far exceeded them. “It’s been really overwhelming, the response,” said MacGregor. “We’ve had repeat customers come back and back for the thing … it’s just a new type of technology that they’re adopting very quickly.

To encourage trial, credit unions in the better ATM Services pilot program did not charge a fee for card activation, however MacGregor said a fee eventually would be added.

“Our primary motivation was just to bring another service to our members — that’s kind of what credit unions do,” MacGregor said. “But we have to keep the lights on so we will charge something once we get through this pilot program and decide what we need it to be … but I think it’s going to be a pretty low cost.”

He said that because ATM-dispensed cards don’t have to be activated manually and aren’t subject to fraud as spinner rack cards can be, fees can be highly competitive with those charged by retailers.

MacGregor said he thought the better ATM Services system offered an almost unlimited array of eventual possibilities — for movie and concert ticket sales, closed-loop cards and more. he said that while cassette space could be a limitation, this might be addressed to some degree by working with companies that offered a large family of brands (for instance, the Darden restaurant group) that could all accept the same gift card.

Will it work for ISOs?

Introducing a new service to ATM customers is rarely easy, and ISOs may have it especially hard. Unlike financial institutions, they lack the communication channels — bank statements, newsletters, e-mail alerts and “employee ambassadors” — to acquaint their customers with the new service. Also, they often don’t have the trust relationship with a user that a customer has with a bank. So they must break down barriers to use with people whose attitudes range from timidity to skepticism.

Sam Kandah, president and CEO of ATM distributor and deployer NationalLink, offered an example of the challenge that faces any new ATM feature: “We worked with a company that does money transfers to Mexico and they installed the machines in Los Angeles,” he said. “For that program to work, for three months [a store owner] put a person standing next to the machine and anybody that wanted to do a money transfer, they had to walk them to the machine and help them do it. that [program] is working only at that store right now. So that tells me a lot.”

Triton Systems senior US retail manager Alex Karetas said he understands the difficulty. “The employees of the credit union really pushed and encouraged their members to go out and use the ATM to buy a gift card,” he said. “So it’s going to take a financial institution or a retailer getting their people to direct customers to the ATM for that product. that goes for anything you do at an ATM, whether its gift card, stamps, anything we’ve looked at over the last 15 years of retail machines.”

Despite the drawbacks, Kandah sees the intrinsic value in adding a new fee stream to an ISO network. “It’s a fantastic idea. Everyone is looking for that next big thing. the gift card is one of the most appealing things. that would be my number one priority that I would jump on,” he said.

However, Kandah isn’t jumping just yet. “You have to have the ROI to make it work … on an [independent] ATM they are more expensive than anywhere else because you have so many people involved … everybody needs a cut. So it’s expensive because you have so many hands.”

“The technology, that will work,” he said. “The problem is who’s going to pay for it. bottom line.”

Are gift cards the Next Big Thing for ATMs?

Are gift cards the Next Big Thing for ATMs? is a post from: LovingCareGifts.com: Gifts With Love & Care

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Abramoff » Post Topic » Custom made Birthday Presents You can search Out

Abramoff » Post Topic » Custom made Birthday Presents You can search Out is a post from: LovingCareGifts.com: Gifts With Love & Care