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Dominos Australia has taken a controversial step in having five of its stores go cashless for pizza pickups in the name of reducing pickup time and queues. Dubbing the new system "tap and take" Dominos hopes that it will reduce waiting times, increase convenience, increase safety and reduce costs involved with handling cash so that they can "remain digitally agile and continue to meet consumer demands". The trial is not winning any points with Libertarians who believe that the government is pushing businesses to crack down on the cash economy with concerns about the government taking a big brother attitude to monitoring business cashflow. While a number of businesses in Australia are cashless, removing the option tends to put customers off with a number of businesses just bearing the loss of profit from customers who prefer to pay with cash.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Pino P on Wednesday July 10 2019, @09:11PM (7 children)
I've never seen a yard sale or garage sale that takes card. All are cash only. A lot of thrift shops refuse card for totals less than $5 as well because of the 30 cent swipe fee that gets tacked onto every transaction in addition to the 3% commission.
Which is doubly difficult for those who cannot scrape together $1,000 or so to maintain the minimum daily balance to avoid a monthly service fee that a bank charges on a checking account.
First, how much is that costing the two of you per month in fees? Second, I'm aware of a lot of parents who refuse to buy their children any payment card until age 18.
Does your house have its own 4G phone as well, so your daughter can make urgent calls between when she arrives home from school and when you arrive home from work? (I admit I'm making a lot of assumptions about the age of your daughter and about your employment situation.)
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Thursday July 11 2019, @01:59AM (4 children)
You've got no pros in your neighborhood. While cash is the tradition, if anyone in the house runs an individual business it's not unusual to see something like a Square [squareup.com] come out at a yard sale to close a deal on a bigger item.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 3, Funny) by Chocolate on Thursday July 11 2019, @02:51AM (3 children)
Sure we do. They take cash just like any other business where privacy is a must.
Bit-choco-coin anyone?
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Thursday July 11 2019, @11:13AM (2 children)
I never knew that buying somebody else's soon to be trash for pennies on the dollar of the retail price was a high privacy concern.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by AthanasiusKircher on Thursday July 11 2019, @01:27PM (1 child)
Whoosh...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 12 2019, @06:14AM
Yes, the only Pros out there are golfers. Such a wonderful world we live in that they now come to your own house to help you with your.. shot.. swing.. whatever.
Brings new meaning to 'let me help you fix your swing'.
(Score: 2) by ledow on Thursday July 11 2019, @08:20AM (1 child)
As below.
I've been to many "flea" markets where everyone has Square or iZettle or lots of other alternatives, I kid you not. Not "the norm" yet but ever-growing. My ex- had one to sell her pottery to her friends, much more practical to get them to stick their card in and get an instant receipt on their phone than faff around trying to dig out notes that we'd have to bank.
But, let's be honest, a flea market selling second-hand goods in private-sales is hardly going to be anywhere near significant to the economy.
Plus, when I do go to them, I only spend what's in my car-parking-change-box anyway... what the hell are you buying that's more than that?
Given that some people *already* do exactly what you say, and the trend is against you, that minor pathetic part of the economy may or may not ever catch up, but it hardly matters. If you want my money, though, for that whatever-it-is that you're selling, which costs something more than a few pence, and I don't have the cash but really want it, a little box that costs nothing to buy but charges 1% will get you that money. Not having one will lose that sale. It's quite simple. The "traders" (i.e. the house-clearance people, etc.) already have them. They just whack 1% on the price and run your card through. A sale is a sale.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Pino P on Thursday July 11 2019, @11:46AM
I'm trying to avoid a phenomenon where a seller must be "significant" or not sell at all. One already sees this with Amazon's $40 per month membership fee on top of the 15% commission.
I just looked at Square pricing [squareup.com] again, and it turns out that Square appears to lack the per-transaction fee that is so problematic for "car-parking-change-box" scale transactions. The $49 chip reader, on the other hand, would need to push a lot of sales to recover its price. The magnetic stripe reader is less expensive, but in 2019, is it still considered acceptable to take cash or magnetic stripe cards only, no Google Pay, no Apple Pay, no chip?