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No Shirt, No Swipe, No Service

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Re: No Shirt, No Swipe, No Service

#11

Post by chickenfries »

ams6110 wrote: post #9
rahimnathwani wrote: post #6

Where I live (Beijing, China) is far ahead: - Most (or maybe all) beggars accept mobile payment by WeChat and/or AliPay - I cannot recall any time in the past year where a shop, fruit stall or street vendor could not accept mobile payment - There is a high-end food court nearby where none of the restaurants accept cash. If you can't pay by card/mobile, you need to go to a special counter on the ground floor, and exch…

My barber takes cash only. It's caught me out a few times. He has a mobile phone, not sure why he's not set up with Square or something similar I'd think he'd make up for the costs with more business.

My barber has a location next to several ATMs. I cannot see imagine a situation where he would start accepting cards. I never see anyone come in for a haircut, ask if they take cards, and then walk out and not come back because they don’t.

Re: No Shirt, No Swipe, No Service

#12

Post by ddingus »

No cash, no sale.

Privacy is a big deal to me. Plus downtime. Cash always works.

Handling it is sometimes a PITA, but I must say we have a long way to go before electronic systems work well universally.

Ordinary people are confused by them, and there are many janky, ultra cheapo type readers out there.

For me personally, I leave my mobile unconnected to any payment system. I don't need or want that.

I will and do use cards, but it is not very often.

Re: No Shirt, No Swipe, No Service

#13

Post by leonardinius »

ams6110 wrote: post #5

Of course you can rationalize that 3% is a reasonable cost and approximately a wash compared to the expense of dealing with cash. But if you're a small coffe house, and sell a $3.00 coffee, and are paying a typical 2.9% + $0.30 per charge, that $0.30 is ten percent of your sale. That's a huge cost. Transaction fees need to come way down for plastic to beat cash on small sales.

True. Especially if you are an owner and cashier at the said business.

But no so if the cashier is your employee. Keeping track of all small deals and ensuring most of them reaches your bank account and not your employee pocket might appear even bigger problem. I know some small dining places where profits 3x skyrocketed since they introduced cards payments (in such places most of the profit comes from small things with crazy margins, such as tea or coffee)

Re: No Shirt, No Swipe, No Service

#14

Post by NeedMoreTea »

Having seen the FB+Google interpretation of privacy, and the few times Venmo with their public feed have cropped up here, I'll be one of the last to abandon cash. I use it for most things that aren't online.

That's despite my whole career being in tech and once thinking such views were the preserve of the tinfoil hat wearers.

Most of the upsides are for the companies, the potential downsides are for the consumers. I don't much like that balance for a tiny bit more convenience.

Re: No Shirt, No Swipe, No Service

#15

Post by Taniwha »

I travel to the US regularly, trying to use a foreign credit card there (especially to buy gas - what is my zip code?) is a real pain - unlike the rest of the western world the US is far from being able to go cashless

Re: No Shirt, No Swipe, No Service

#16

Post by dugditches »

Taniwha wrote: post #15

I travel to the US regularly, trying to use a foreign credit card there (especially to buy gas - what is my zip code?) is a real pain - unlike the rest of the western world the US is far from being able to go cashless

90210

Canadians can use the first 3 of their postal code.

Re: No Shirt, No Swipe, No Service

#18

Post by orangechairs »

To echo what others have said, cashless systems -- especially in fast food chains -- are a quick way to discriminate against a whole population of the underbanked. I was in Dos Toros (burrito chain mentioned early in the article) about a month ago, and the woman in line ahead of me didn't have a card. She got so embarrassed at the register despite having ample cash to pay for her meal. I paid for her with my card, she paid me in cash, and all was fine, but no one walked away from that experience feeling good about it. It was such a unnecessary emotional stress on the woman. I feel weird returning to Dos Toros knowing this policy is creating these experiences for customers.

Re: No Shirt, No Swipe, No Service

#19

Post by reaperducer »

gringoDan wrote: post #8
ams6110 wrote: post #5

Of course you can rationalize that 3% is a reasonable cost and approximately a wash compared to the expense of dealing with cash. But if you're a small coffe house, and sell a $3.00 coffee, and are paying a typical 2.9% + $0.30 per charge, that $0.30 is ten percent of your sale. That's a huge cost. Transaction fees need to come way down for plastic to beat cash on small sales.

An even more extreme example would be a grocery store, whose overall profit margins are only 1-3%.

Which is why it's so surprising that it took so long for Albertsons to get on the Apple Pay bandwagon, which costs less per transaction than traditional swipes or chip+PIN.
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