Really, if you have a successful legitimate restaurant in this day and age that insists on being cash only, that is a sign of quality to me. They persist despite their indifference to the trend. I’m immediately intrigued when I hear of a cash only place, and I’m yet to be disappointed.
I always assume that cash-only places are either tax evaders or insufferable hipsters, and avoid them if I can.
My only experience with ticket in machines was Chuckie Cheese.
I think we called it the ticket eater machine.
Sadly you just got another ticket.
Very disappointing, I must say.
Damn, dirty rat bastard.
All the cash only places I could think of are what I’d consider “old-school.” Like doing business for three or four generations, or being from the Old Country and not yet adapted to accepting credit cards. I can’t think of a single hipster place that is cash-only. Those are most likely to be credit-only. I don’t know hipsters to be fond of cash. This may vary by region/area.
Also, because nobody gets reimbursed when they accept a counterfeit bill—it’s just a loss—some businesses have policies that require that bills over a certain amount be verified by a manager. When I worked at McDonald’s back in the ‘80s, all transactions were in cash, but I had to get any bill that was $20 or greater verified by a manager.
I have seen cashiers call over a manager in more recent years to verify $100 bills. In addition to inspecting it, they often use an anti-counterfeit pen (which apparently work by reacting to the presence of starch).
So anyway this all adds steps to the process and holds up the line.
There used to be places like that here. Covid forced them to adapt or die.
The pizza place in my city used to be cash (or perhaps local check) only (they have an ATM) - they now take credit cards though they charge a fee. Rudy’s Drive-In in La Crosse (with roller-skating waitresses) is cash only (again, ATM) - they have no trouble getting customers. There are a couple other bars/eating places in the area that are cash only (maybe local check).
Brian
I worked at McD’s in the '80s too, and we weren’t required to have managers check $20 bills.
On a related note: in the break room, we had access to all of the training videos, and we found one about handling money and watched it. It warned about a scam technique that customers sometimes used on unwitting cashiers:
- Start with four $20 bills, and one $1 bill.
- Cut one corner number “20” from each of the four $20 bills. (With each bill still having three corners, each one would still be accepted wherever you chose to spend them.)
- Tape those four “20” numbers in the corresponding four corners of the $1 bill.
- Offer the doctored $1 bill as a $20 for payment for your cheeseburger.
- Having spent just $1, you’ve now received $20 worth of food and real currency/coins as change.
The video said that cashiers should flip $20 bills to check the back, which would certainly reveal this scam. Funny thing is we didn’t remember ever getting that specific training as a cashier - which meant that the other cashiers probably hadn’t either. So of course we immediately tried it out, and sure enough, our coworker at the register accepted the fake $20 bill (which we promptly replaced with a real one so as to not get in real trouble).
The lack of cash in society has really made being a gigging musician a lot less profitable.
It used to be if you did a good job and sorta “rocked the house,” you could expect to take home more in tips… nowadays you need some sort of fancy QR code and who has the time to figure out that sort of thing?
Not that I do this for the money, I’m not an idiot or something.
And this was a successful technique? All that tape, unless I’m imagining this wrong, would have been an immediate clue, and I would like to think that I’d notice the wrong face on the bill itself. Or do I have this completely wrong in my head? Also looking at old bills, it looks rather difficult to cut them out so they fit cleanly on the one. They’re like different designs.
I guess it must have been a policy just for the particular franchise that I worked at, although now that I think about it, it may have only been a requirement for new employees.
With that said, I’m pretty sure everyone still had to get a manager’s approval to accept larger bills ($50 and $100 bills). These were pretty rare, though.
The training video warned watchers to be aware of it, but I don’t recall any stats at all about how often stores got defrauded by it or how often perps were caught in the act. All I can say is that the one time we tried it, it worked.
The places I’ve seen that are cash only are generally ancient. Most were established before my birth.
I’ve usually been paid by the venue directly. They normally accept cards at the door and the bar.
I’d guess that most everyone under 30 has already figured it out. I mean, I’ve tipped by QR code multiple times, and I’m not in the demographic that typically seeks out live music.
That’s the easy part. Paying using the QR code once it’s already setup.
The hard part is avtually setting up the QR code so it routes to your checking account and you can receive tips as a gigging musician.
Also i’m being facetious, I could probably figure it out in 30 seconds after watching a youtube video. It wasn’t suppised to be taken literally.
I’m talking about over and above what a venue pays. It used to be you could pass out a tip jar or put a tip jar in front of a stage and if an audience liked what you did then you were given additional tips. Now we live in a cashless society tip jars are less common and kinda tacky.
The best compromise is to setup a QR code routed directly to your account so that members of the audience can give out tips as desired. This works if your goal is to make more money, which mine really isn’t. I just do it for the thrills.
I think my main idea is to point out yet another way a largely cashless society is tranforming modern society.
Hehe, I’ve never done that. It was one of those things I’ve seen in movies, but never in real life outside of buskers. People normally seem to tip me by buying me drinks.
The funny part about that is: I’ve almost always been paid by the venue in cash. One place cut us a check for a gig a few years ago, that was weird.
Now, for selling merchandise? Yeah, it’s almost completely necessary to get a setup that can take cards and other cashless methods. If it was just for tips, I suppose you could just list your Venmo account.
I have full medical retirement from the militarym I don’t need the extra cash but my drummer sure does. He’s broke AF. All we have to do is post a QR code at the front of the stage and we could get more money but I sure as heck ain’t gonna take that sort of initiative.
I’m just here for the haha’s
We almost always got paid in cash, and free drinks. Hubster used to tell people that what he loved about playing music was that they paid him to drink their beer 
We never put out tip jar. I sort of wish we’d thought of it.
The best restaurant in Osaka (IMO) is still cash only. I just ate there a couple weeks ago.