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When The Cash Register Doesn't Take Cash

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

Justin Case brings us this story from NPR's Morning Edition:

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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Original Submission

• Re:iZettle at a garage saleRe:iZettle at a garage sale (Score: 3, Interesting) by ledow on Tuesday January 09 2018, @04:03PM (2 children)

  by ledow (5567) on Tuesday January 09 2018, @04:03PM (#620051) Homepage

  I'll tell you, because I've done it.

  My ex-gf makes pottery. She was talking about selling it, I bought her a iZettle reader for her phone. Does chip-and-pin, NFC, Apple Pay, etc.

  You could either pay £49 for the fancy bluetooth standalone reader, and a smaller commission charge.

  Or £0 and a larger commission.

  Very much reliant on "the phone you have in your back pocket" but if you already have one... literally nothing. And she only had an old smartphone but it still worked. I reckon 95%+ of people have a phone they could use and a data package that would work already.

  Just add a few percent to the price you negotiate, even if you need to say "Look, it's £10 cash, or £11 if you want to use your card".

  To be honest, it's incredibly easy to get one. And they work remarkably well. Hell, they'll even sort out receipts, accounts etc. for you for free with their app.

  Parent

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• Re:iZettle at a garage sale(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Tuesday January 09 2018, @05:29PM

  by Gaaark (41) on Tuesday January 09 2018, @05:29PM (#620103) Journal

  I can see the pros now:

  $20 for a blow job if you pay cash...$25 for a card.

  :)

  --
  --- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. I have always been here. ---Gaaark 2.0 --

  Parent

• Re:iZettle at a garage sale(Score: 2) by Pino P on Tuesday January 09 2018, @07:33PM

  by Pino P (4721) on Tuesday January 09 2018, @07:33PM (#620167) Journal

  You could either pay £49 for the fancy bluetooth standalone reader, and a smaller commission charge.

  How much is the minimum commission per transaction? Consider that 0.50 to 1.00 USD transactions are common in a garage sale.

  Very much reliant on "the phone you have in your back pocket" but if you already have one... literally nothing.

  It's possible to have a phone but no data service. Currently my Android phone is on a $36/yr T-Mobile plan that includes 0 MB of cellular data transfer allowance per month. Other phone users whose plans do include cellular data may have used up all their data for the month. An access point in your garage should let you run a garage sale on your wired home Internet, but not away from your home.

  Just add a few percent to the price you negotiate, even if you need to say "Look, it's £10 cash, or £11 if you want to use your card".

  That depends on whether your national law, provincial law, and merchant agreement allow cash discounts.

  Parent