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posted by FatPhil on Tuesday January 09 2018, @05:43AM   Printer-friendly
from the just-the-tip dept.

Bluestone, which now has 20 stores in the U.S., went cashless last October.

A big reason: Nearly 90 percent of customers [...] never paid in cash.

Another reason: The lines move faster when employees don't have to make change.

"We see a lot of guests that pay for a meal with a credit card, but will always leave a cash tip. And I think people like doing that. People like palming a bartender a $20 or palming their server a $10. Palming the bus boy a couple bucks," said Fileccia.

There are also people, he said, who want to keep their meal off the books — if they're having an affair, for example.

No, businesses are not required to accept cash: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legal_tender


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  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by bzipitidoo on Tuesday January 09 2018, @10:57AM (5 children)

    by bzipitidoo (4388) on Tuesday January 09 2018, @10:57AM (#619948) Journal

    Yes. But there are a few wrinkles with cash. The debtor has to offer legal tender in the amount of the debt or greater. The creditor is not required to have change.

    Friend of mine would fill his truck with gas at these stations that say they won't accept any bills larger than $20. Sometimes he had only a $50 bill, and he would offer it for nearly $50 worth of gas, and often they would refuse to take it until he explained that they weren't required to give him change and that if they didn't take the bill, he would drive off, with his debt discharged and if they called the police, the police would side with him. They always took the bill after hearing that.

    Another wrinkle is that the one cent coin somehow doesn't have the same exalted status as all the rest of the cash denominations. I think that's so vending machines don't have to deal with them. Also I understand it is illegal to destroy money. No melting down of nickels for their metal. But pennies, yes, can legally destroy them. Many tourist places have those vending machines that take 51 cents to let you turn a crank and watch it smash the penny, imprinting a design on it, and returning it.

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  • (Score: 1) by GDX on Tuesday January 09 2018, @12:34PM

    by GDX (1950) on Tuesday January 09 2018, @12:34PM (#619973)

    This varies a lot for place to place, where I live the more typical is not that they do not accept large bills but that they offer a maximum of possible change. Basically in one concrete place if you offer a 200€ bill for a 160€ purchase they accept it but they don't accept a 100€ bill for a 20€ purchase as they only offer a maximum of 50€ change. And I think that this is a more sane approach.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 09 2018, @06:21PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 09 2018, @06:21PM (#620132)

    No, you're not allowed to destroy pennies, either. Those 51-cent machines don't actually stamp your penny - they just have a supply of blank copper pieces and stamp those, and keep the penny.

    • (Score: 1) by Farmer Tim on Tuesday January 09 2018, @08:04PM

      by Farmer Tim (6490) on Tuesday January 09 2018, @08:04PM (#620183)
      That’s even worse than destroying pennies! Do you realise how many adventurers are eaten by gelatinous cubes every year getting those copper pieces?
      --
      Came for the news, stayed for the soap opera.
  • (Score: 2) by AthanasiusKircher on Tuesday January 09 2018, @07:05PM (1 child)

    by AthanasiusKircher (5291) on Tuesday January 09 2018, @07:05PM (#620151) Journal

    Friend of mine would fill his truck with gas at these stations that say they won't accept any bills larger than $20. Sometimes he had only a $50 bill, and he would offer it for nearly $50 worth of gas, and often they would refuse to take it until he explained that they weren't required to give him change and that if they didn't take the bill, he would drive off, with his debt discharged and if they called the police, the police would side with him. They always took the bill after hearing that.

    The U.S. Treasury [treasury.gov] disagrees with your friend. He was just being an ignorant jerk. Unless there was a state law requiring a private business to take denominations larger than $20, they didn't have to accept a $50 bill. As long as the payment policy was clearly posted, the police would likely side with the gas station.

    A sale is a contract. A seller is not obligated to agree to the buyer's terms. If a seller posts a sign saying "I only accept goats as payment," that's perfectly legal. Granted, I think a gas station would have a hard time enforcing such a policy if it didn't restrict people who pumped their gas before offering payment. (In such a situation, they'd probably be better off forcing pre-payment in goats before allowing the pump to function.)

    But the "we don't take larger than $20" thing is a pretty standard policy of many small businesses. If it's posted, it's a stated part of the terms of the sales contract, unless otherwise prohibited by law. If your friend attempted to depart the gas station with the gas in his tank without paying, he was stealing, plain and simple. And the gas station could take him to court to force him to settle said debt after the fact. (Although there, I'm not sure they could insist on small bills.)

    • (Score: 2) by krishnoid on Wednesday January 10 2018, @04:39AM

      by krishnoid (1156) on Wednesday January 10 2018, @04:39AM (#620341)

      He was just being an ignorant jerk.

      The guy's willing to hand over $50 for less than $50 worth of gas and not get change back; as far as jerks go, it's not like he's hogging a pump, hitting on the cashier, or using all the paper towels or something.