As part of a campaign to protect retailers and restaurant operators from robbers, an independent sales organization is offering a voucher for an AK-47 assault rifle to merchants that sign up for its payment services.
The offer from Sarasota, Fla.-based MerchantService.com Inc. came to light Sept. 15 in a press release. Since then, Gino Kauzlarich, company president, has appeared on a local Fox News television station in Florida and has gained attention on the Huffington Post and in newspapers across the country.
Company officials did not respond to phone and email messages by PaymentsSource deadline, but news of the offer brought reactions in other quarters.
“I had to laugh out loud,” said analyst Eric Grover, a principal at Minden, Nev.-based Intrepid Ventures. The gambit may work with a niche audience, he speculates.
MerchantService.com is offering rifles as part of a “No Merchant Victims” campaign “to encourage merchants to stand their ground and protect themselves,” Kauzlarich said in the release.
“Keep in mind we are not simply handing out AK-47 assault rifles to anyone who opens an account with us,” he said. “Instead, the merchant receives a voucher that can be used at any reputable gun shop.”
The gun shop the merchant chooses would perform the background checks and impose the waiting period the laws require, Kauzlarich says.
Merchants who sign up but prefer to decline the rifle offer will receive a voucher for $750, the company’s website says.
But the “No Merchant Victims” campaign does not end with providing firearms. If a thief attempts to rob a participating merchant, the MerchantService.com program also provides insurance for lost-cash replacement, hospitalization and accidental death, the release says.
The coverage also pays for expenses merchants incur because of security breaches by computer hackers, including compensation for merchant’s customers whose identity subsequently is stolen because of a breach, according to the release.
MerchantService.com also helps merchants compile a “negative” database of consumers to avoid, the release says.
Merchants with 15 or more stores and annual transaction volume of $1 million or more qualify for the rifle or $750, the company’s website says. Smaller merchants receive a prorated deal.
An owner of five stores averaging $12,500 per month in credit card sales, for example, would qualify for a $500 voucher because it is processing $750,000 annually, the company says on the site.
The site also offers links to self-protection sites, such as the seminars conducted at the Sandy Springs Gun Club in Sandy Springs, Ga.
The offer of an assault rifle differs from the more usual free terminals or software ISOs offer, notes Grover. Though the deal may get some takers, “it might even be a turn-off” to others, he says.
A quotation from the MerchantService.com site may sum up the spirit of the campaign: “The best solution now for our society is to shoot back.”
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