I have a question about Military discounts

Sassycakes

Sassycakes

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Location
Pennsylvania
I have been seeing a lot about Military discounts. My husband was in the Navy during the Viet Nam war. Would he be elligible and how do you apply?
 

I find most places don't include people like us, Vietnam vets, unless specifically specified. They are mostly for active members.
 

It varies from one business or another. If you have the designation of 'Veteran' on your ID or Military ID you can usually qualify. My daughter will sometimes give them if their bearing and manners suggest they were in service.
 
Many companies offer a military discount. I signed up with Lowe's, years ago, and get 10% off on virtually every purchase. I carry a small copy of my DD214 (honorable discharge) in my wallet, and all I have to do is show it to the cashier. Check any company you might be interested in, online, to see if they offer a discount.
 
Don M. said:
Many companies offer a military discount. I signed up with Lowe's, years ago, and get 10% off on virtually every purchase. I carry a small copy of my DD214 in my wallet, and all I have to do is show it to the cashier. Check any company you might be interested in, online, to see if they offer a discount.
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I didn't know that. Thanks for the tip.
 
Sassycakes said:
I have been seeing a lot about Military discounts. My husband was in the Navy during the Viet Nam war. Would he be elligible and how do you apply?
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He is eligible unless the discount policy excludes veterans. I've never come across a business whose military discount policy has any exclusions, but comments are saying that some do, so apparently some do.
Ask someone at the business if they offer a military discount and go from there.
 
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Murrmurr said:
He is eligible unless the discount policy excludes veterans. I've never come across a business whose military discount policy has any exclusions, but comments are saying that some do, so apparently some do.
Ask someone at the business if they offer a military discount and go from there.
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This is all new to me. I asked some places about 10 years ago and was told no so I stopped doing it. I guess I should start flashing that thing around. It sure doesn't hurt to ask. Dang, I could have really used those discounts.
 
RFW said:
This is all new to me. I asked some places about 10 years ago and was told no so I stopped doing it. I guess I should start flashing that thing around. It sure doesn't hurt to ask. Dang, I could have really used those discounts.
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Yeah, give it a shot. I have a feeling someone was being a jerk.
 
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RFW said:
Just off the top of my head, I did ask Audi about it over a year ago and they only offered discounts for active duty. I could have bought american but oh well.
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Makes sense for small businesses, but not huge corporations...just my opinion.

I lived in a small town in the Calif foothills where most of the businesses were Mom&Pop places. They gave military discounts only during times of war just as they gave firefighter discounts (and freebies) during wildfires.
 
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Murrmurr said:
Makes sense for small businesses, but not huge corporations...just my opinion.

I lived in a small town in the Calif foothills where most of the businesses were Mom&Pop places. They gave military discounts only during times of war just as they gave firefighter discounts (and freebies) during wildfires.
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I like to help out as we are all struggling so it never crosses my mind when I'm at a local store unless they ask. It's the big corpos I want savings from. 😎
 
RFW said:
I didn't know that. Thanks for the tip.
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If you do not wish to carry a copy of your DD-214 for the discount at Lowe's just take a copy of it to the store and ask to apply for the military discount. They will enter your info. into their system and anytime you purchase anything just inform the cashier that you are a veteran. The cashier will ask you for your phone number and verify when you present your D.L.
 
oldpeculier said:
If you do not wish to carry a copy of your DD-214 for the discount at Lowe's just take a copy of it to the store and ask to apply for the military discount. They will enter your info. into their system and anytime you purchase anything just inform the cashier that you are a veteran. The cashier will ask you for your phone number and verify when you present your D.L.
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Nice tip. Funny enough, I do keep it in my wallet all the time. Kicking myself for not thinking of trying.
 
Usually you just show your discharge ID card and the discount will be applied. I've always checked to see if they give military discounts to war vets first and then show my ID.
 
Murrmurr said:
That really surprises me. That's discriminatory. Might be illegal. Also might be an *at owner's discretion* type of thing, but I doubt it.
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Here's the other side of this:

DH and I learned quickly to not give military, police, firefighter, teacher, or other discounts, and were shocked at how many people asked for them. I'm talking all the above plus single parents (probably every third family), people with more than one child (?), seniors, you name it. Some were pretty darn pushy about it, too.

Our prices were already cut to the bone and our costs continued to escalate. Vendors, contractors and employees didn't discount their products and services to us - we paid for our supplies and services in full.

Giving 10% off to a sizeable percentage of our customer base would have meant raising everyone's prices by 5% or more. Hardly seemed fair to us, so our policy was no discounts to anyone. That said, we sometimes gave product away to people truly in need.

My daddy always said when you own your own business people count your money with a shovel and their own with a teaspoon.
 
StarSong said:
Here's the other side of this:

DH and I learned quickly to not give military, police, firefighter, teacher, or other discounts, and were shocked at how many people asked for them. I'm talking all the above plus single parents (probably every third family), people with more than one child (?), seniors, you name it. Some were pretty darn pushy about it, too.

Our prices were already cut to the bone and our costs continued to escalate. Vendors, contractors and employees didn't discount their products and services to us - we paid for our supplies and services in full.

Giving 10% off to a sizeable percentage of our customer base would have meant raising everyone's prices by 5% or more. Hardly seemed fair to us, so our policy was no discounts to anyone. That said, we sometimes gave product away to people truly in need.

My daddy always said when you own your own business people count your money with a shovel and their own with a teaspoon.
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Seems a lot more reasonable to me for corporate businesses to offer discounts than for small or private businesses. When I was helping my cousin out when he bought a convenience store I was amazed at how much his bank charged him for ATM and credit card transactions. He charged a 50-cent fee, which pissed off some of his customers, but the bank charged as much as $4 each transaction. That's crazy.

This was a long time ago. 20 years, I'd say. I don't know if banks still charge that much.
 
My Florida drivers license has "veteran" printed on the face. I also have a VA health card. I was in the Navy after the Korean war, but before Viet Nam. That gives me a low entitlement for health care, but does cover my hearing aids. I have done well with my Medicare Advantage plan.
Home Depot recently expanded their veteran discounts. Lowe's has been doing discounts for some time.
 
Murrmurr said:
Seems a lot more reasonable to me for corporate businesses to offer discounts than for small or private businesses. When I was helping my cousin out when he bought a convenience store I was amazed at how much his bank charged him for ATM and credit card transactions. He charged a 50-cent fee, which pissed off some of his customers, but the bank charged as much as $4 each transaction. That's crazy.

This was a long time ago. 20 years, I'd say. I don't know if banks still charge that much.
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When we finally started accepting credit cards about 25 years ago we had to raise our prices by 3% across the board to cover it. No swipes for transactions under $15. (Back then, everyone still carried cash and checkbooks.) We never bothered with debit cards or AmEx (Visa and MC only). Over time we moved from cash and checks only to cash and CC only because I detested chasing bad checks.

I'm astounded when I see people swiping CCs for transactions that cost under a dollar. Small retailers take a beating on those.

p.s. Rewards cards cost retailers more per swipe in the form o higher interchange fees. For our website I moved to PayPal payments exclusively within a short period of time. Reasonable, predictable fees, no monthly surcharges, no surcharge for refunds, no extra charge for rewards cards, and the money is available to transfer to our business checking account within a couple of days.
 
The local cancer society thrift store gives a military discount.

Also my stepfather got some kind of free something (perhaps it was the safety deposit box but I don't remember) when he opened his account at the bank. I was with him. It was for anyone who ever served in the military. He did need to show a copy of his discharge paper. I guess it's handy for those who served to have copies.
 

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