Maybe not now, but back in 1999 I bought a gold double eagle from a coin shop using my Discover card.
In my experience, the stores that don’t take plastic have average sales that are much lower than $50. The sort of place a person might stop at in the morning to get coffee, a bagel and a newspaper or where you might buy a sandwich, chips and a soda at lunch. or where you stop to buy a half gallon of milk, because you can get in and out faster than at a supermarket. The credit/debit card fees will kill them, because the way the fees are calculated a single $100 sales costs less in fees than 20 $5 sales. And they may not lose any business because of it- few people walk around with absolutely no cash and these are the sorts of places people go to as part of their routine , so they aren’t going to benefit from the sort of impulse buying in the way the bookstore might.
I am tired of hearing that “cards are a huge hassle for shops” since so are other methods of payment. Checks are likely the worst, due to bad checks, time spend writing and verifying, etc.
But even cash is a hassle. First you have the time spend counting, double counting then triple and quadruple counting once the first two times come out wrong*. Then, increased risk of employee pilfering, increased risk of hold-ups and the relevant insurance increases, also a cost to deposit cash (especially if in high amounts), risks of money laundering, increased risk of tax compliance issues, and so forth.
*An extra half hour a nite for two staffers is not trivial.
No, you dont need to jack up prices* . Yes, there is a fee, but there’s also a cost to using cash. And, studies have shown the extra business is more than worth it.
- if you have many, many small trans, under $10 or so, then yes, the cost is very high.
Because they are bringing in Visa.
What was the cost of counting and double counting the cash?
What was the cost of the hold up insurance?
What was the cost of any thefts that might occur on the way or there?
What was the cost of employee pilferage?
What was the cost of the bank charges for depositing cash?
Hint- not “bupkis”.
The issue is that most cash only business owners are not business savvy. They dont see those costs directly, like they see that 2% CC fee charge. Thus, to them, it doesnt exist. But retailers that have hired consultants have seen that CC bring in more $ than they cost- all things considered.
Due to Federal Anti-money Laundering regulations, no one will bank pot sellers, even those legal under State laws.
5-0, 5-0 !!!
There’s a pizza store in my neighborhood (Kew Gardens Hills, Queens, NY) that only takes cash.
Don’t know if this happens in the States, but in Australia most banks will do a credit check on the proprietor of a small business before issuing a terminal/merchant facility. Back when I was a small business manager, I had at least one occasion where we wouldn’t provide merchant facilities because one of the directors had been bankrupt a few years prior. [This info is now ~10 years old, so whether the Banks still do this I don’t know]
Well, I pulled the $50 figure out of my hat, just to put a hypothetical number to the discussion. But oddly, the sorts of places you describe, in my area at least, all seem to take plastic. I buy sodas and snacks or lunches almost daily at 7-11s and QuickChek stores, and they certainly all take plastic, though if I’m just buying a soda for under $2, I’ll usually use cash. If I’m buying lunch, I’ll use my credit card. Even among independent convenience stores, I don’t recall seeing one around here that was cash only.
Where I generally run into cash-only situations in New Jersey, where I live, are used bookstores (which is why I used that example) and a very small number of independent restaurants. And I have certainly walked out of both without purchasing (though I fully intended to purchase) because they wouldn’t take a credit card. Which was the basis of my post - are these places actually saving enough on processing fees that they can afford to have customers *who want to buy *walking out without buying?
By the way, I rarely walk around with absolutely *no *cash, but I often have very little. I go to the ATM and withdraw usually $40 for walking-around money. I use it till it is close to depleted, then go back for more. So for any purchase much over $5, I’m looking to use plastic, and it’s really only in the situations I’ve described that I’ve run into an issue. With regard to restaurants that don’t take plastic, there are very few that I’ve encountered, and most of those are high-end, so you would really need to know in advance to have sufficient cash if you were going to eat there. My solution, generally, on encountering one of these places has simply been to eat elsewhere.
Yes, the delicious Mountain Creamery in Woodstock, VT*, takes cash and local checks. I forgot last time and by dumb luck had a check with me, and found out “local” includes across the river.
*Try the VerMonte Cristo and homemade ice cream!