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
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Justin Case on Tuesday January 09 2018, @04:42PM (2 children)
I usually pay cash, because it seems difficult for the bank, government, etc. to simply twiddle a few bits and make my cash disappear. When cash no longer exists, any undesirables can simply be digitally vaporized: no notice, no trial, no recourse.
Anyway, back on topic for this thread... I recently rung up about $108 of groceries at one of those self-checkout lanes. Just as I attempted to put my cash in the device, the entire store's computer system locked up. All registers frozen. Nothing moving anywhere.
I had $110 in my hand, ready to insert in the dollar-gobbler. I took my $110 to the nearest store employee and offered to pay the posted price for my purchases. She declined my offer.
I attempted to clarify: "Are you refusing to accept payment for this merchandise?"
"Um, ah, our system is down."
"Not my problem. I'm offering to pay your advertised price for this merchandise. Will you take my money?"
"Could you just wait a minute."
"No, actually, I have to be somewhere. Now I am going to head for the door. You can call the cops. If they get here before I'm gone, I will tell them I tried to pay and you refused my legal tender."
I don't know how that would have played out. I don't even know for sure if I was bluffing. But she decided to accept the cash. Did she turn it over to her employer later? I don't know, but again, I didn't write their code so I'm not responsible for their defects and failure to have a downtime procedure.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 10 2018, @06:17AM (1 child)
You would be arrested. They are refusing you the merchandise until you pay for it not refusing to accept payment for something you've already received. You only moved the goods around the store, you don't own them yet. You don't have a debt with the store until after they've allowed you to leave with the goods and they never allow the goods out of the store until you pay, so you must always pay first.
(Score: 2) by Justin Case on Wednesday January 10 2018, @01:10PM
But I was trying to pay for it.
They offered their goods at a stated price. I agreed to pay that price. We had a deal. Now I was trying to fulfill my obligations, but they were refusing to sell to me at the advertised price.