# Random “Why don’t we have this in the US” thread **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 20, 2023, 9:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/random-why-don-t-we-have-this-in-the-us-thread/987294 "2023-07-20T09:15:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2023, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/random-why-don-t-we-have-this-in-the-us-thread/987294/141 "2023-07-23T23:08:47Z")
> [@Dr.Strangelove](#): > > Or maybe there is a screen icon indicating that it supports tap-to-pay, but the sensor isn’t that location _That’s_ the one that _really_ lights my fire. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2023, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/random-why-don-t-we-have-this-in-the-us-thread/987294/142 "2023-07-23T23:47:31Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > You might find if you asked the kid he’d far prefer you to use Paypal, Venmo, Zelle, or whatever corresponding apps are popular in Canada than that stinky weird paper stuff you fogeys call “cash”. Good idea – I’ll ask the kid. The system in Canada is called Interac, and all the banks participate. It’s a system that – as the saying goes – works very well until it doesn’t. 95% of the time transfers are virtually instantaneous if the recipient is registered for automatic deposits – literally within a couple of seconds. Longer if they’re not registered and have to correctly answer a security question. And the system occasionally glitches. It’s very rare, but of course when it does happen, it always happens when the Interac transfer is an unexpected gift or a relatively large amount that I’m sending and I look forward to the recipient getting it, and they don’t – for sometimes as long as an hour or more instead of the usual couple of seconds. My explanation for this is that it’s an attempt by bank executives to raise my blood pressure in the hope of causing me to have a heart attack, because they hate me. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2023, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/random-why-don-t-we-have-this-in-the-us-thread/987294/143 "2023-07-24T00:34:24Z")
All you need is the kid’s e-mail address and you can do a transfer straight to his bank account, if he’s set it up on his phone. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2023, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/random-why-don-t-we-have-this-in-the-us-thread/987294/144 "2023-07-24T01:06:11Z")
Yeah, but you have store them upside down and they don’t stand very well. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2023, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/random-why-don-t-we-have-this-in-the-us-thread/987294/145 "2023-07-24T01:13:22Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > My explanation for this is that it’s an attempt by bank executives to raise my blood pressure in the hope of causing me to have a heart attack, because they hate me. Now, now, my good dog. They don’t _hate_ you. Do not fill your majestic head with such unhappy thoughts. They just want your blood and money, that’s all. No hate about it; just business. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![fedman1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e495f1/32.png) [@fedman1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fedman1)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2023, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/random-why-don-t-we-have-this-in-the-us-thread/987294/146 "2023-07-24T03:37:30Z")
what about your neighborhood bar that only takes cash? Hopefully, they also have (expensive!!) ATM nearby ---
**Author:** ![I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/i_love_me_vol.i/32/521_2.png) [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Love_Me_Vol.I)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2023, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/random-why-don-t-we-have-this-in-the-us-thread/987294/147 "2023-07-24T04:14:03Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > > [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > > > My pet peeve is that no one here (Canada or US) packages things like mustard or mayonnaise in toothpaste type tubes. Ever so much more convenient. > > We do have squeeze bottles, however. Yes and they’re inferior to toothpaste tube type packaging. It’s annoying (and costly) to throw away 10% of my mustard with every bottle I buy. > [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > Side-note: the “stuck-up ultra-conservative Canadian bank oligopoly” has the feature of being safe. Only two banks have gone under since the Great Depression, and that triggered an inquiry chaired by a Supreme Court judge. Only two in close to a century is a pretty good track record, compared to the S&Ls and Silicon Valley Bank down south. Safe? Safe?!? That’s no fun. YAWWWWWN! You Canooks are so boring and square. I bet you think everyone should have health insurance provided. When are you gonna step up and live life on the wild side? We Americans like to play fast and loose with the rules. After all, bilking others is how you get ahead in life. Don’t they teach that valuable lesson to Canadian kids growing up? So primitive! You guys probably use turn signals, too. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2023, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/random-why-don-t-we-have-this-in-the-us-thread/987294/148 "2023-07-24T04:27:03Z")
And we get out of the pool on request. ---
**Author:** ![I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/i_love_me_vol.i/32/521_2.png) [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Love_Me_Vol.I)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2023, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/random-why-don-t-we-have-this-in-the-us-thread/987294/149 "2023-07-24T04:29:26Z")
You disgust me. Have some balls and shit on everyone around you. It’s what Jesus would do. Fucking commies the lot of y’all. ---
**Author:** ![Aspenglow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspenglow/32/76_2.png) [@Aspenglow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspenglow)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2023, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/random-why-don-t-we-have-this-in-the-us-thread/987294/150 "2023-07-24T04:56:43Z")
Moderating: > [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](#): > > You disgust me. Have some balls and shit on everyone around you. It’s what Jesus would do. > > Fucking commies the lot of y’all. - I know it’s meant in fun, but this is a bit over the line for this forum. Let’s tone it down a bit. Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/i_love_me_vol.i/32/521_2.png) [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Love_Me_Vol.I)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2023, 6:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/random-why-don-t-we-have-this-in-the-us-thread/987294/151 "2023-07-24T06:32:41Z")
Sorry. I figured the obvious sarcasm was… obvious. ---
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2023, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/random-why-don-t-we-have-this-in-the-us-thread/987294/152 "2023-07-24T16:52:44Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > 100% of my retail purchases are credit card. Including my rare use of vending machines. On the doubly-rare occasion somebody won’t take credit, they either get to break my emergency $20 or I do without. More often the latter. It just happened the other day that I needed new passport photos, and the shop I went to only took cash, not credit cards. (Their computers were down.) So it happens. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2023, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/random-why-don-t-we-have-this-in-the-us-thread/987294/153 "2023-07-24T20:19:15Z")
Hence the emergency cash. But it really is an emergency, or at least an abnormal, circumstance when cash is needed. > [@fedman1](#): > > what about your neighborhood bar that only takes cash? Hopefully, they also have (expensive!!) ATM nearby Clearly we live in different neighborhoods. The majestic @wolfpup would never frequent such places. ---
**Author:** ![74westy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/74westy/32/3950_2.png) [@74westy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/74westy)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2023, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/random-why-don-t-we-have-this-in-the-us-thread/987294/154 "2023-07-24T20:26:22Z")
I suppose Wolfpup, like most non-Americans, is somewhat puzzled as to why a neighbourhood bar would only take cash. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2023, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/random-why-don-t-we-have-this-in-the-us-thread/987294/155 "2023-07-24T21:12:56Z")
I know why some do, but I hardy think that motivation or that custom is unique to the USA. Lotta small places can avoid paying tax on a lot of income by just never recording it anywhere. Credit cards leave a wide paper (electronic really) trail. Also, lotta places have to pay a silly percentage of their take in credit card fees on each purchase. A way to keep more of each sale’s revenue is to refuse CCs. For a bar, restaurant, or small retailer whose target demographic is already mostly living in a cash economy, what they lose by refusing CCs may be negligible compared to what they can gain / steal by running off-books plus what they gain by avoiding the CC companies’ 3 to 5% vig. ---
**Author:** ![74westy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/74westy/32/3950_2.png) [@74westy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/74westy)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2023, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/random-why-don-t-we-have-this-in-the-us-thread/987294/156 "2023-07-24T21:18:29Z")
This might be a reason not to take credit cards but does not explain why they would fire all customers who don’t want to use cash. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2023, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/random-why-don-t-we-have-this-in-the-us-thread/987294/157 "2023-07-24T21:19:33Z")
Hmm. I am mystified by this last post. One of us is confused, and it may well be me. ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2023, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/random-why-don-t-we-have-this-in-the-us-thread/987294/158 "2023-07-24T21:20:30Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > I was in a little shop that sold “art”. Everything from hand drawn notecards to dining room tables. Not a price on anything, which actually made it fun to look at things and attempt to guess the price. I once worked in a shop like that. They sold mostly antiques, but some local art as well. Everything had a label that told the salesperson the minimum acceptable price. The actual price would depend on several things: How well-dressed the customer was and their accent. How keen to buy they were and how long the item had been in stock. Women were generally more gullible than men. Naturally, we allowed customers to haggle the price down if they wanted to, but since we would usually start off at 200 or 300%, there was plenty of room for manoeuvre. I was taken to several auctions where sellers were blatantly defrauded. Buyers would agree in advance not to bid against each other for some choice objects, which meant that they were sold for much less than the true value. Later, in a back room at a local pup, there would be a private auction, the true price paid and the “profit” split (with a bung for the auctioneer). ---
**Author:** ![Mops](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mops/32/16494_2.png) [@Mops](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mops)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2023, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/random-why-don-t-we-have-this-in-the-us-thread/987294/159 "2023-07-24T21:35:02Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > How do people outside the US handle taxes on international online sales? When I bought books or other stuff from US retailers they billed me the net price, German customs looked at the invoice included with the parcel and decided whether price+shipping it was below a certain threshold. If that was not the case customs assessed import VAT on price + shipping cost (that regulation is in place to avoid sellers invoicing low price + high shipping cost), and sent the parcel on with the parcel service collecting the assessed VAT\* from me COD. In some cases that did not work because the shipper did not include a meaningful invoice, and I had to visit the regional customs office 15 km away to submit proof of the amount paid, and in one case to describe what the gadget was for customs classification purposes. So it sometimes is a PITA to order from US sellers who don’t know how to write a proper invoice for customs purposes. \*) plus customs duties, but these are nominal or zero for most classes of imports from the US ---
**Author:** ![74westy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/74westy/32/3950_2.png) [@74westy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/74westy)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2023, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/random-why-don-t-we-have-this-in-the-us-thread/987294/160 "2023-07-24T21:38:13Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > Hmm. I am mystified by this last post. One of us is confused, and it may well be me. People will pay with regular bank cards and if the bar doesn’t take them they will go to another bar that does because who wants to use cash? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/random-why-don-t-we-have-this-in-the-us-thread/987294.md?page=7) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/random-why-don-t-we-have-this-in-the-us-thread/987294.md?page=9)