This is yet another situation in which consumers, if they cared enough to take a stand, would have the last say. Personally, I would not patronize that business because I’m not going to obtain and use a service in which I have no interest. If even half their present customers would take the same stand, that policy would end in short order.
You’re assuming that their target audience objects to the policy. Most younger folks are fine without using cash, and prefer to use their phones to pay for everything.
I understand and accept that but, personally, I just don’t like being dictated to. LOL
Nobody’s dictating anything, or at least they aren’t dictating any more than every business already does.
No shirt no service? You’re being dictated to. No personal checks? Dictated to. Venmo only? No Venmo at all? Dictates. No cheeseburgers for sale at this ice cream truck? Richard potatoes all day.
Every business gets to decide (within existing laws) what they sell, how they sell it, and what kinds of payments they take. They’re not dictating. They’re just making their offer and consumers - as ever - accept it or don’t.
Huh. I often buy things from individuals. I usually offer to pay with a check or a credit card. These are people who know me, and who aren’t worried about my check bouncing. Ten years ago people like this universally preferred checks, to avoid the fees associated with cards. This year, every single one who was set up to take credit cards preferred i payed that way.
I think checks are well on the path of obsolescence. I still need to pay my town taxes with cash or a check, and a check is way more convenient to me. So I’m not quite ready to ditch the checkbook. But I’m looking at that stack of checkbooks in the closet, and thinking we’re never going to buy more.
Cash will last a bit longer. It’s very handy for small fast transactions among people who don’t exchange money often. And for drug deals, and other stuff people don’t want to be traced. But i think it’s on it’s way out, too.
Venmo is pretty useful
I don’t know that I entirely disagree. The theft has become a debt, in that they would have to accept legal tender as restitution.
But it would still also be a theft, for which you are held criminally liable for. Upside is, you can pay the fine in cash.
So, you may be able to force a situation where a store has to accept cash for goods you have received, but I don’t think it would be worth it.
During the recession my area was pretty hard hit, and my business was getting too many NSF checks. I looked into check guarantee services, but I wasn’t taking in enough checks to make that worthwhile.
So, I stopped accepting checks. Initially people complained, but I explained that I either had to stop accepting checks or I’d have to raise prices and then the honest people would be paying for the bouncers. I also got a visit from the district attorney for the county, asking that I not stop accepting checks as it made the area look bad. He had a plan for reimbursing businesses for bounced checks (never happened).
Withing a year, my primary competitors had stopped accepting checks as well.
Probably not.
Those who attempt to argue the arrangement with vendors or on an internet forum (an arrangement, as cited above, that is acknowledged by the Fed) via magic words printed on cash smacks a little too close to gold fringe territory for my tastes.
By that logic, if somebody steals my car but shouts “it’s cool I’ll pay you for it laaatteeeerrr!” as he drives away, I become his creditor and would be forced to accept a cash payment of equal value even if I just want my vehicle back.
I thought so too, until I discovered the hard way that tens of thousands of my fellow passengers don’t mind the new way of doing business.
I recently went hungry at the airport in Newark NJ because the ONLY business model is a phone app.
All the food service at the airport is apparently owned by one organization; The fast-food counters at the food courts, the sit-down restaurants and even the formal wine bars …all work on the same system.
And the system is: you can’t eat without a phone app.
There is no cash register anywhere, there is no kiosk to place an order, no signs with menus and prices, no employee who you can approach to place your order, and there is no place to pay
.
The only way to eat-or even to see a menu-- is to scan the QR code (which is displayed prominently on the table at the sit-down restaurants, or on the signs at the food court.) That brings up a menu , from which you order-- and pay, using Venmo, paypal or whatever---- all on your phone.
I had just arrived at the airport from overseas, and my foreign phone which was supposed to automatically link up with the American network failed to do so, so I had no working phone. (and in any case, I don’t have any payment apps like venmo installed.)
I asked at a half dozen places how to order, but the workers at the counter couldn’t understand my problem. One guy tried to be helpful–and told me that there’s a shop selling cell phones right next door.
Yeah, that’s their business model…The only way to get a slice of pizza is to buy a new phone.
Hell, “cash only”, you’re being dictated to. There’s still a number of business I patronize that are cash only, and it annoys the shit out of me, as I almost never carry cash. Take a card or payment app like any normal business! Luckily, I remember which are which (like my visit yesterday to Johnnie’s Beef) and prepare accordingly. My brother simply refuses to patronize “cash only” places.
From my business (photography), all my non-corporate clients pay me with Venmo or Zelle. I can’t remember the last time I’ve received a personal check or cash – maybe 2018? Not even credit card – I accept those, as well, but directly it’s only been payment apps for the last few years. And it is SO much nicer on the business end.
I guess i need to get with the times and install some payment apps. I’ve been using PayPal (via browser) from time to time, but that’s it.
So, the court orders you to pay for what you stole as part of your conviction for shoplifting. The store at that point would have to accept cash as restitution.
Not in the slightest the logic that I used. You did not enter a contract, they do not have the right to your car in any case, it is your car, not theirs. However, they joyride your car into a lake, ruining it. Do you just want your vehicle back, or do you want them to pay for the damages? If you want them to pay restitution for the damages, then you would have to accept cash.
My point is, that after someone breaks the law, is convicted, and you are owed recompense for their crime, at that point, you would have to accept cash.
This is not an effective “loophole”, or getting into gold fringe territory, as it also means that you get convicted of a crime, and probably have whatever you have purloined confiscated anyway.
And you have to pay for the phone with venmo.
If the car is ruined, the cash is not for the car (which you would still not own after paying the court mandated amount) but for the damages incurred.
All right, now that’s scary. Obviously a portion of the public doesn’t have usable phones, especially in an international airport (although, I guess, in your case, you could have used airport Wi-Fi ?).
And you can’t even vote with your feet because you’re stuck in the airport.
I suggest you write a scathing letter to the airport and leave negative reviews for all the restaurants, if not done already.
My mechanic is cash only. However, he is extremely honest and an overall great mechanic.
I didn’t say otherwise or in any way indicate that the car would become the thief’s. But, when the court orders the thief to pay $15,000 in restitution for the damages, you cannot demand that they pay you via venmo, or in the form of a new car, or in chickens. The court has created a debt that they owe you, that can be discharged by paying cash.
As I said, I understand; and as I said, I don’t like it. 