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D.C.'s ban on cashless businesses takes effect

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Re: D.C.'s ban on cashless businesses takes effect

#441

Post by extraduder_ire »

arp242 wrote: post #338
didntcheck wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The new "meta" seems to be charging you a tax for not using their loyalty card. Items at Tesco are now significantly more expensive if you don't scan a Clubcard. I suppose it is easier to rotate those than bank cards though

> I suppose it is easier to rotate those than bank cards though When I asked for a Clubcard a few months ago they said they're not giving out any and you have to use the app. Funny enough just after I asked I found one on the floor; I'm using that one. I wouldn't go to Tesco if it wasn't for that, because the price differences are just insane. Before you had the points and whatnot but not the strong discounts (IIRC),…

I use an image my buddy took of his clubcard barcode with his phone. Sadly, the app prevents you from screenshotting on android. I think most people here just do a google image search.

Handy enough. I get to avoid jacked-up prices, and he gets reward points.

Re: D.C.'s ban on cashless businesses takes effect

#442

Post by fragmede »

kxrm wrote: post #19

I live in DC and support this law not just from an accessibility standpoint but also from a privacy standpoint. I am tired of every retail/restaurant establishment building a profile of me.

Use Apple Pay. It generates a new CC number (DPAN) for each transaction so they can't track you through that.

Re: D.C.'s ban on cashless businesses takes effect

#443

Post by jerryzh »

nonrandomstring wrote: post #162

Almost every comment is about politics, choice, privacy, rights, markets and percentages. There's a completely different take; Civic resilience From an operational and strategic security POV, cash is a vastly superior technology. It doesn't need electricity, a network of cables, satellites and routers. Therefore cash in circulation acts as a buffer that provides economic stability and continuity of operations. Also,…

Typical bs when legacy is replaced. Same reason can also argue that cavalry and archer should remain in army

Re: D.C.'s ban on cashless businesses takes effect

#444

Post by marcosdumay »

whelp_24 wrote: post #129
marcosdumay wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nearly every democracy on the world manages to put on their constitution that the government won't meddle with private business without due process. And almost all of those manage to follow that rule. I'm pretty sure the US can do the same if the system is run by the government. That kind of thing only happens there because it's run by private companies.

The U.S has a lot of things in its constitution, it's like the original constitutional democracy (the UK is uncodified btw). Your trust in government is far far too high.

> The U.S has a lot of things in its constitution

You know... I'm a Brazilian. Our constitution has something around 200 pages. The reactions of US people about their government working is really surprising and hard to understand to me.

Anyway, I'm sure that e.g. your postal service does not discriminate between legal business, because there's a rule forbidding it (that one I know that exists). Why do you think such a rule won't work for financial transfers?

Re: D.C.'s ban on cashless businesses takes effect

#445

Post by DerekL »

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #52
DerekL wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It looks like many stores cut down on robbery opportunities by not having a cash register. They don't give change back, they only give store credit if you don't pay in exact change. That way, they can just put each cash payment in an envelope and drop it into a time-locked safe. (I imagine that they would do that, I don't know for sure.)

What state/country is this in? I think it's an interesting approach but I have never seen any store in the US (or anywhere else for that matter) that takes cash but doesn't give change.

From the article:

> Businesses can offer cash-to-card services for in-store purchases with a lot of stipulations including no associated fees or time limits.

Re: D.C.'s ban on cashless businesses takes effect

#446

Post by [deleted] »

op00to wrote: post #285
didntcheck wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The new "meta" seems to be charging you a tax for not using their loyalty card. Items at Tesco are now significantly more expensive if you don't scan a Clubcard. I suppose it is easier to rotate those than bank cards though

Feel free to use my phone number for these if you’re in the US. 212-867-5309. Replace area code with one near your location.

[deleted]

Re: D.C.'s ban on cashless businesses takes effect

#447

Post by seanmcdirmid »

assimpleaspossi wrote: post #355
mindondrugs wrote: post #298

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I dont think I have ever encountered this in my adult life honestly. A more common occasion is encountering a business that is cash only (usually small market stalls) and is infinitely more annoying as I have to go and take out a amount of money greater than the product I want to buy, leaving me with a rather annoying amount of loose change.

I used to own several restaurants. This happens far more often than most people may realize.

It happens 100% of the time I've been in a taxi.

Re: D.C.'s ban on cashless businesses takes effect

#448

Post by TeMPOraL »

blincoln wrote: post #411
nonrandomstring wrote: post #380

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. Especially when there's no ATM for 5 miles. Plurality of payment methods is always more desirable and more robust. If one is serious about business, why would you not take, cash, cheque, credit and debit cards, contactless, NFT phone, and bitcoin? Even if some of those are suboptimal, a sale is a sale. The ability to negotiate and adapt is what makes the world go round. One example; I was caught in an emergen…

> If one is serious about business, why would you not take, cash, cheque, credit and debit cards, contactless, NFT phone, and bitcoin? Even if some of those are suboptimal, a sale is a sale. For some businesses, the overall cost of accepting some of those methods may be higher than the expected revenue from customers who won't use another method. Buying new payment readers. Having to convert the bitcoin immediately t…

> You would be too if you were barely making ends meet, the expected outcome for "a customer asked me to accept an unusual form of payment" was almost always "it was a con, the 'customer' got the merchandise/service for free", and you'd most likely be fired as a result.

Just the millionth example of why trust is a critical component in society. Its presence allows things to be flexible and efficient. Lack of it makes things suck for everyone.

Re: D.C.'s ban on cashless businesses takes effect

#449

Post by TeMPOraL »

nonrandomstring wrote: post #430
filoleg wrote: post #422

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> why would you not take, cash, cheque, credit and debit cards, contactless, NFT […] Well, all other significant concerns aside, NFTs are not fungible, it is literally in the name. Transactions are made through fungible methods. Example: a $10 bill is exactly the same as any other $10 other bill or the same as having a $10 in your bank account. Same applies to BTC, any bitcoin is an equivalent of any other BTC. This…

Sorry I'm a complete idiot, that was confusing. Meant "Near Field Xfer/Coms = an archaic way of saying "contactless" from about 10 years ago. I forgot there is also "Non Fungible Tokens" for bored apes and whatnot. :)

You forgot NFTs are a thing? That's a good sign, if people start to forget this nonsense, there is yet hope for humanity.

Re: D.C.'s ban on cashless businesses takes effect

#450

Post by TeMPOraL »

fodkodrasz wrote: post #388
rescbr wrote: post #324

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If it is like in Brazil, the tax-enabled receipt printers have onboard memory that stores the transactions to send them off-line if the tax agency's servers are down. Something that I've learned when I worked with those devices in the past is that the tax authorities do have strong contingency plans.

That still needs electricity. I still won't be able to go into the store and buy some bottled water, a bucket and some sawdust for a makeshift toilet until the services come back, if the shopkeeper insists that the transaction needs its "electronic papertrail", despite having enough cash at hand, and the store having enough stock of the wares. I don't know about the implementation details of the system, it is working…

But here's a thing: it still needs electricity, but not Internet. The shop owner might have a battery or a generator that'll keep the register running. Unfortunately, the Internet cannot be stored in buckets full of bits, so if that's down (and that includes simply the servers at the other end being down), there's nothing you can do.

Put another way, it's always a good idea to avoid hard dependency on a working Internet connection whenever possible. Be it your "smart" toaster, or your payment methods.

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