There are now 545 medical marijuana stores in Los Angeles. It's a growing business and you have a better chance of finding a nearby medical marijuana store than finding a Starbucks.

Medical marijuana stores are legal in Los Angeles. It's probably easier to open up a medical marijuana store than it is to open up a McDonald's. After all, McDonald's is evil. Too many calories.

To read the entire story, go to:

http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2010/06/01/am-la-may-close-hundreds-of-medical-marijuana-dispensaries/

Los Angeles is trying to close down many of their pot shops. See the article in Reuters at:

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6565TU20100607?type=domesticNews&feedType=RSS&feedName=domesticNews

It's kind of interesting that several California communities are trying to ban Happy Meals. They're fattening and lead to childhood obesity.

In the interest of fairness, it is said that medical marijuana is helpful to certain patients when recommended or prescribed by a doctor. Colorado is another state that permits the distribution of medical marijuana to those patients who have such requirements.

Congress is about to pass new financial legislation that could have a big effect on your  retail store or restaurant.

The new rules would allow individual businesses to set minimum purchase requirements for customers using a credit card.

The new rules would also permit cash discounts.

I know that some retail stores have required minimum purchases for credit card users. MasterCard and VISA prohibit minimum charges. If someone wants to buy a pack of gum in a store, the store is obligated to allow customers to make the purchase on a credit card.

Some gas stations offer cash discounts for those customers not using a credit card. Those cash discounts are also prohibited under the MasterCard and VISA agreements that retailers sign with their credit card processors.

Yes. I am aware that many retailers break that agreement. If the new legislation is passed, all retailers will have those options without breaking their credit card agreements.

This is not all necessarily good for retailers.

Many retailers who start accepting credit cards for the first time see sales go up by as much as 50%. Accepting credit cards is a great plus for most retailers and for the economy as a whole. It works like this. Before we had credit cards, everyone paid by cash or check. When people started using credit cards, it injected billions of dollars into the economy. All credit card users had an extra month to pay for their purchases. People had instant credit and could pay for a purchase over a period of time.

Credit cards place lots of extra money into our economy. People tend to make larger purchases. People think less about not buying.

Allowing retailers to offer a cash discount or require minimum purchases could have a negative effect on the economy.

You can read more about the new credit card laws at:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/15/business/15credit.html?src=busln

This is the ninth of 10 articles to help you increase your retail or restaurant sales or profits by 25%. These ideas are in no particular order.

If you wish to contribute some of your own ideas, please go to:

http://www.quicktopic.com/44/H/kmftrxGq5dfrq

The link above is a link to Quick Topic. This is a FREE online discussion board that you may want to use in your business. If you go to the link above, you will be going to our 10 Tips Guaranteed To Increase Sales and Profits by 25%. It is anonymous and does not require you to logon in order to post to this discussion board.

Tip #9 Sending Out Email.

If you’ve been reading our newsletter, you know that sending out emails is a great marketing tool for your business.

Cash Register Express (CRE) and Restaurant Pro Express (RPE) allow retail stores to obtain customer email addresses and send out emails to them.

pcAmerica has sent out 368 emails to our customers (our weekly newsletter). Prior to that time, we sent out a monthly “paper” newsletter.

Emails work. Many weeks, we don’t even mention our products. We just enjoy staying in contact with our customers. We know that just about 100% of our customers remember seeing our newsletter. Unfortunately, only about half read the newsletter, but that’s OK. Our goal is to keep reminding you that we are around.

If you own a retail store, it is equally important to stay in contact with your customers. Sending out an email is a great way to let your customers know that you exist.
 
According to research from Epsilon and published in MarketingVOX, email increases the likelihood to buy by 50%. More than 57% of recipients have a more positive opinion about companies that send out emails. 71% who make a purchase remember email communications when making a purchase.
 
Consumers appear to be more accustomed to offers from companies they trust and seem to appreciate the relationship. 84% said that they like receiving emails from companies with whom they register.

Here’s some email advice:
 
· If you are not emailing to your customers, you are losing money.
 
· Always get the email addresses of every customer entering your business (especially those who buy).
 
· It is nice to offer your customers some incentive for being included in your email address database. For example, offer your customers something for free or 10% off on a future purchase.
 
· Always allow customers to be deleted from your email list should they make such a request.
 
· Always remember that every customer is not computer literate. Probably about a third of your customers don’t use a computer or emails. It would be nice to have some sort of alternative for non-computer people. Perhaps send out a monthly post card to non-computer people.
 
· You don’t have to be that smart to send out a weekly, biweekly or monthly newsletter. If you can’t do it, get one of your more computer literate employees or friends to help you out.
 
· If you have never sent out an email to your customers before, start with something simple. You can offer 50% off on the next purchase,. That will get people to appreciate your newsletter. Or, you can simply send an email containing your picture (or the picture of one of your employees) with some words of advice related to items found in your store.
 
· Your newsletter should be friendly and always contain your name, address, and phone number.
 
· Your newsletter should be periodic. Send it out weekly, biweekly or monthly on a regular basis. People should look forward to receiving your newsletter.
 
· It does not necessarily matter that every single customer reads every word in your newsletter. It doesn’t matter if not every single customer enjoys your newsletter. What matters is that every customer knows that you are staying in contact. Most of your customers will appreciate this contact.
 
To read more about the benefits of sending out emails, go to:

http://www.marketingvox.com/email-increases-likelihood-to-buy-by-50-043281/