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More businesses are not accepting cash

wsj.com

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Re: More businesses are not accepting cash

#11

Post by cperciva »

zhte415 wrote: post #10
throwaway98121 wrote: post #3

Unrelated but husband and I stopped at an Indian grocery store to pick up some items for a chicken tikka masala recipe we found on YouTube. They insisted we pay cash, even though they had a machine to swipe a card. We don’t carry cash and assumed their card machine was broken. As we apologized and started leaving, they suddenly agreed to accept a credit card. Presumably the transaction costs per swipe are high, altho…

I'm curious why you don't carry cash?

I have friends who don't carry cash simply because they realized that it has been years since they spent any.

I do carry cash, but the only time I recall spending any in Canada in the past couple of years was when I dropped some into a charity donation "hat" -- which I knew I would be doing, so I could easily have brought some along for that purpose rather than carrying cash around all the time.

Re: More businesses are not accepting cash

#12

Post by tejasmanohar »

gameshot911 wrote: post #8
neonate wrote: post #2

https://outline.com/MzStTw

Cool, didn't know you own the rights to this WSJ article: From the Outine.com T&C: >You represent and warrant that you have the right to grant, to the Company an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, fully paid, worldwide license (with the right to sublicense) to use, copy, publicly perform, publicly display, reformat, translate, excerpt (in whole or in part) and distribute such User Content for any pu…

Heh. The T&C is obviously going to "cover their ass", but I seriously wonder what what % of Outline.com's usage in hits is to workaround paywalls. I mostly see links on HN, but that's honestly the only reason I've seen it linked.

Re: More businesses are not accepting cash

#13

Post by TheChaplain »

throwaway98121 wrote: post #3

Unrelated but husband and I stopped at an Indian grocery store to pick up some items for a chicken tikka masala recipe we found on YouTube. They insisted we pay cash, even though they had a machine to swipe a card. We don’t carry cash and assumed their card machine was broken. As we apologized and started leaving, they suddenly agreed to accept a credit card. Presumably the transaction costs per swipe are high, altho…

The transaction costs are unfortunately not negligible for small vendors, they don't have the power to negotiate like Walmart et al.

Re: More businesses are not accepting cash

#14

Post by TheChaplain »

flexer2 wrote: post #6
throwaway98121 wrote: post #3

Unrelated but husband and I stopped at an Indian grocery store to pick up some items for a chicken tikka masala recipe we found on YouTube. They insisted we pay cash, even though they had a machine to swipe a card. We don’t carry cash and assumed their card machine was broken. As we apologized and started leaving, they suddenly agreed to accept a credit card. Presumably the transaction costs per swipe are high, altho…

I had a cab driver do this to me once, in 2016 or so. He dropped me off at the destination and told me it’d be $20 or whatever, cash only. I didn’t have cash on me, and said all I had was a card. He demanded that I prove I had no cash. Being a little dumbstruck and just wanting to get away from him I showed my empty wallet and he begrudgingly pulled out a phone with a square reader on it. Left a very sour taste in my…

As I mentioned above, transaction fees are a killer on already thin margins. And in some states it's illegal to add a charge for the credit card transaction.

Re: More businesses are not accepting cash

#15

Post by drb91 »

TheChaplain wrote: post #13
throwaway98121 wrote: post #3

Unrelated but husband and I stopped at an Indian grocery store to pick up some items for a chicken tikka masala recipe we found on YouTube. They insisted we pay cash, even though they had a machine to swipe a card. We don’t carry cash and assumed their card machine was broken. As we apologized and started leaving, they suddenly agreed to accept a credit card. Presumably the transaction costs per swipe are high, altho…

The transaction costs are unfortunately not negligible for small vendors, they don't have the power to negotiate like Walmart et al.

IME vendors simply pass the charge along to consumers these days, esepcially for small purchases.

Re: More businesses are not accepting cash

#16

Post by drb91 »

gameshot911 wrote: post #8
neonate wrote: post #2

https://outline.com/MzStTw

Cool, didn't know you own the rights to this WSJ article: From the Outine.com T&C: >You represent and warrant that you have the right to grant, to the Company an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, fully paid, worldwide license (with the right to sublicense) to use, copy, publicly perform, publicly display, reformat, translate, excerpt (in whole or in part) and distribute such User Content for any pu…

The WSJ is free to file a DMCA claim.

Re: More businesses are not accepting cash

#17

Post by Kalium »

TheChaplain wrote: post #14
flexer2 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had a cab driver do this to me once, in 2016 or so. He dropped me off at the destination and told me it’d be $20 or whatever, cash only. I didn’t have cash on me, and said all I had was a card. He demanded that I prove I had no cash. Being a little dumbstruck and just wanting to get away from him I showed my empty wallet and he begrudgingly pulled out a phone with a square reader on it. Left a very sour taste in my…

As I mentioned above, transaction fees are a killer on already thin margins. And in some states it's illegal to add a charge for the credit card transaction.

As I understand it, that's often grounds for the merchant account provider to yank your ability to accept cards at all.

Re: More businesses are not accepting cash

#18

Post by rhcom2 »

flexer2 wrote: post #6
throwaway98121 wrote: post #3

Unrelated but husband and I stopped at an Indian grocery store to pick up some items for a chicken tikka masala recipe we found on YouTube. They insisted we pay cash, even though they had a machine to swipe a card. We don’t carry cash and assumed their card machine was broken. As we apologized and started leaving, they suddenly agreed to accept a credit card. Presumably the transaction costs per swipe are high, altho…

I had a cab driver do this to me once, in 2016 or so. He dropped me off at the destination and told me it’d be $20 or whatever, cash only. I didn’t have cash on me, and said all I had was a card. He demanded that I prove I had no cash. Being a little dumbstruck and just wanting to get away from him I showed my empty wallet and he begrudgingly pulled out a phone with a square reader on it. Left a very sour taste in my…

In NYC if you even mention the TLC their card machines will start working very quickly.

Re: More businesses are not accepting cash

#20

Post by jzchang »

This is anecdotal: here in Shanghai it's not uncommon that vendors(specifically street-side small vendors) will turn down customers paying with cash payments.

Those that do unwillingly sigh and look for change. Vendors all assume immediately they're going to scan your QR code or you will scan theirs. Even taxis have their QR Codes printed out on their dashboard somewhere. Subway systems and buses all use QR codes.

Recently in the Carrefour, they started implementing POS systems with facial scans for payment.

Funnily, there have even been occasions where foreign friends can't buy themselves quick street food as all the stands refuse to accept their 100 RMB cash for payment(no change, or digital only)

While I understand privacy is a strong concern(especially under our great leader Xi \s) there is no doubt that the convenience of buying and selling here is absolutely great. Sending money to friends is easy and painless. Makes using Zelle, Apple Pay, and especially Venmo feel cumbersome.

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