Cash is so gross though. All those grubby mitts all over it, plus being stored in super icky places like bras and grunderpants. Big fan of cashless if for no other reason than keeping bits of other people off me.
Actual other reasons:
More secure to use a locked device for payment than carry cash that becomes anonymous once its removed from your person
You cant lose digital money down the back of the couch, or drop it when getting your wallet out or whatever
Easier for businesses to keep a track and balance sales automatically when its all digital
Safer for staff rather than handling wads of cash, especially in places like service stations
As proved by various outages, when electricity (or the internet, or the service provider, etc) is down and prevents digital transfers being made… cash doesnt work either, cause it’s all the same POS / accounting software that handles cash which is also down.
Also if a natural disaster takes out internet access for an extended period, wheres the cash a business needs to keep on hand going to suddenly appear from? I haven’t worked in retail in a decade or more, but we always kept as little cash as possible on hand due to the constant threat of robbery. Even back then cash was way less than 50% of transactions, I’d be surprised if it was even in the double digit percentages anymore.
From a checkout chump perspective it was probably 40 minutes of my day wasted dealing with the cash. Getting it dispensed, double counting it all, depositing in to the safe when you had too much, watching out for dodgy currency or those dickheads who try the quick “I give you a 5 and you round up the change to 10 and then I’ll swap that for a 20 and then give you 30 so I get a 50” scam, dealing with damaged or defaced currency, recounting at end of day, getting reamed for being too far up or too far down in the count, having to sign forms to swear to god you hadn’t knocked off a pineapple (or put too many pineapples in the drawer)…
Then you need a safe storage space for the cash, security to protect the cash, literally a whole industry built on transporting it around the place, keep enough cash on hand to provide change, keep enough to cover EFT withdrawals.
There’s a lot of cost to handling cash. Also its gross. Did I mention its gross yet? Getting warm notes that were slightly sticky was disgusting.
Cash is so gross though. All those grubby mitts all over it, plus being stored in super icky places like bras and grunderpants. Big fan of cashless if for no other reason than keeping bits of other people off me.
Actual other reasons:
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As proved by various outages, when electricity (or the internet, or the service provider, etc) is down and prevents digital transfers being made… cash doesnt work either, cause it’s all the same POS / accounting software that handles cash which is also down.
Also if a natural disaster takes out internet access for an extended period, wheres the cash a business needs to keep on hand going to suddenly appear from? I haven’t worked in retail in a decade or more, but we always kept as little cash as possible on hand due to the constant threat of robbery. Even back then cash was way less than 50% of transactions, I’d be surprised if it was even in the double digit percentages anymore.
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and when the electricity is down you can shop at all
Agree with the bit about it being easier to keep track of payments with electronic payment.
Cash does have a cost, though it’s less visible.
It’s a pain in the butthole tbh.
From a checkout chump perspective it was probably 40 minutes of my day wasted dealing with the cash. Getting it dispensed, double counting it all, depositing in to the safe when you had too much, watching out for dodgy currency or those dickheads who try the quick “I give you a 5 and you round up the change to 10 and then I’ll swap that for a 20 and then give you 30 so I get a 50” scam, dealing with damaged or defaced currency, recounting at end of day, getting reamed for being too far up or too far down in the count, having to sign forms to swear to god you hadn’t knocked off a pineapple (or put too many pineapples in the drawer)…
Then you need a safe storage space for the cash, security to protect the cash, literally a whole industry built on transporting it around the place, keep enough cash on hand to provide change, keep enough to cover EFT withdrawals.
There’s a lot of cost to handling cash. Also its gross. Did I mention its gross yet? Getting warm notes that were slightly sticky was disgusting.