No. The $15 is going to the credit card processors if the visitors pay by credit card.
I am in the New Orleans metro area, and it is still rare around here. I know of exactly one gas station, among dozens, that has separate cash/credit prices. One of the most popular donut shops in the area also charges a fee for a credit card or debit card transaction. A new bakery nearby also charges a little extra for credit or debit.
There are also a very small handful of cash-only** businesses around here (one of which is yet another popular bakery – I sense a theme). But that’s likely true anywhere in the U.S.
** Some of which will accept personal checks if it’s drawn on a local bank and they know you as a regular.
They knead the dough.
That’s pretty much it around here too, and the smaller the operation, the more likely they are to add a surcharge for credit cards.
I live on the Northshore and I see this in more and more restaurants and gas stations (by cash the stations seem to mean mostly the corporate credit card), but few other places. Some smaller stores offer this, especially if asked. I never even consider the option for a chain.
To re-iterate, I am referring only to bills that say Total = $x, Pay by cash = $x-.03x.
I haven’t seen anyone pay via check at a store or restaurant in many years, so I don’t know what would happen if someone tried to write a check.
That’s odd. Mine is cash or card for the haircut, but there is a sign saying they prefer cash tips, which I’m fine with. No reason for the hair cutters to lose money to the credit card companies.
Not much cash only here, but I was in Amsterdam recently and even small cafes were card only. I came back with more Euros than I expected to. And Viking offers a couple of percent discount if you pay them by cash through your bank. I wouldn’t do that for a fly by night cruise company, but it worked out fine for us.
Tax shenanigans is more likely, since more cash = more cost of cash. Cash costs the business just as CC do, altho more like only half.
It’s legal. The whole thing about “legal tender for all debts” is misunderstood. There are no regulations that would fine etc a normal business for failing to accept cash. One time I was digging around deep in Federal banking regs (that’s what I do) and there is a clause that affects banks, etc.
Yeah, checks are now passes for shopping.
Note that in general it has been shown that accepting CC increases sales by about 20%.
Yeah, that is not very legal, unless posted.
I live outside of Boulder, but it’s certainly the nearest place with any sort of good restaurants.
Yeah, their cash policy has been a pain going back to when they first opened. I can remember being there with a 30 minute wait for a table at 4:30 on a Wednesday, and hearing people claim that not taking cards is driving away customers.
They did take cards when it was outside seating during covid, or maybe that was just Under the Sun. Mountain Sun, Southern Sun, and Long’s Peak are still (or back to) cash only, as far as I know.
I really don’t care about the cash/card thing there. I’m upset that their nachos got hit by a shrink ray.
I’ve been to several restaurants that have added service fees since the start of the pandemic. Some seem much more diligent about posting the fee than others. I, and I assume most people, find it very annoying that menu prices are actually 3-10% below actual prices, so after fees, taxes, and tip a $15 entree is over $20 out the door.
Colorado has had some of the highest inflation in restaurant costs in the US, and I’m sure these practices are attempts by the restaurant to hide that the $15 burger people are complaining about is actually a $20 burger.
Fair enough, but accepting cash payments comes with the costs and risks of handling cash. It’s vulnerable to theft by employees, strongarm robbery, miscounting, and even on a good day will incur labor costs to handle the cash, count it, and secure it.
Exactly Too many small businesses owners whine incessantly about credit card processing fees. The louder they whine, the more likely I think they’re really whining about not being able to skim some off the top before the taxman cometh.
After finally being able to pay utility bills with a credit card starting about 12 years ago or so, they’re starting to suddenly say, uh, no; we don’t want to take credit cards after all.
My natural gas company has a flat fee. I’m tempted to pre-pay $2000 worth of natural gas for $3.00, but then it’s just giving them a free loan and me losing out earnings on VTI or whatever.
You can say you’re fuel price hedging and suddenly it sounds like a pretty good idea. 
Huh. I have never owned a vehicle that require premium, nor has anyone else in my households, in 50 years of driving.
Yes, I’ve always read that they make very little from gas sales. The gas is just to get them to come in and buy the profitable minimsrt items.
I think it’s more that they can see exactly how much they’re being charged for credit card processing fees, whereas the labor costs for processing cash are hidden.
Yep, and other costs.
Now sure, if you business does mostly small sales- $10 or less, then turning to cash may be a good idea. Or at least a sign saying CC sales must be over $10.
But if you have larger sales, Credit cards are better- more sale, and more security. Yeah,m you pay a small price for that, but it’s worth it.
Too many at least.
That certainly is a significant part of it.
My two Volvo C30s preferred premium.
But not the 2 Saturn’s or the new Hyundai.
Luxury cars usually do, same with performance cars.
My current Volvos - an XC90 and a S60 - require it, 91 minimum.
The exact wording in the manual for my wife’s XC90 is:
“Volvo recommends premium fuel for optimum performance but using 87 octane and above will not affect engine reliability”
It then goes on to say that under “demanding conditions” it is recommended to shift to higher octane (“91 or higher”), but none of those conditions have applied to us since we’ve owned the car. Towing a trailer, hot conditions, higher altitudes.
My wife’s interpretation of this is that it requires 91 octane. My interpretation is that it does not. The service manager at the dealer agrees with me. The salesperson (I mean “purchase consultant”) agrees with her.
I did a little reesearch (i.e. I googled it) and found the following:
“Seventy percent of U.S. drivers currently own a vehicle that requires regular gasoline, while 16 percent drive vehicles that require premium fuel. The remaining 14 percent own a vehicle that requires mid-grade gasoline (10 percent) or uses an alternative energy source (4 percent).” (From a cite from 2016)
For a list of current (2023) cars which require premium:
I’ve never worked for a small business, but have worked for large retailers ($5B and up) either as employee or consultant for decades. We are well aware of the relative costs of cash, credit, debit, check and EBT (and some more minor ones like WIC, eWIC, gift cards) Whether we take any particular form of tender is a decision based on the cost, profitability, public relations, legal requirements, contractual requirements and other factors.
Cost has both fixed and variable components. If you take cash, you need to set up some method of handling cash. Same with credit, debit, etc. do the average cost is not the same as the per transaction cost.
The one I’m expecting to disappear from many food/drug retailers in the next decade is check. For some retailers it’s down to <3%, and only old people are using checks. But the PR hit for pulling that trigger is going to be bad for grocery stores. A large retailer could save millions by not configuring and maintaining verification processes for checks, but the old folks are going to rage.
My 80 something mum hasn’t written a check in a store for years, but some of her contemporaries have written checks for groceries for 60+ years and believe that that’s what god intended.
There’s also the convenience of accepting credit cards, and the ability to sell something to the customer more expensive than they would have paid for if they were paying cash. Like if I only got $7 in my pocket, I can only spend $7 at a cash-only joint. But I always have my credit cards, and that $7 limit is no more!
I deal with services in the thousands of dollars, usually, and I have never added a credit card surcharge. I believe in the long run, accepting credit cards has brought me more business than being a cash-only one. I know that as a consumer, if there’s two restaurants I want to go to, and one is cash-only and the other takes credit cards, I am choosing the latter 9 times out of 10, as I rarely have much cash on me (right now, I have 2 one-dollar bills in my wallet.) I’d be curious if there’s a study that relates to all that.
Supermarkets are really the only stores that I’ve ever known to accept checks - but something supermarkets often do is cash payroll and government checks . And getting rid of that in some places will be a big deal. I wonder if the processes for cashing those checks cost any less than the process to take personal checks in payment.