Originally Posted by
javabytes
There's a butcher near my house that is cash only. I don't go there, and I know many other people who do the same just because of the lack of CC acceptance. I asked him about it once. He doesn't want to "give away" 3%. All his competitors accept credit cards. He loses my business and that of a number of other people I know because he won't take credit. But all these people are invisible to him. He only sees it if someone walks into his store, wants to pay CC, and then walks out. All the people who have been there before and subsequently avoid his business, he doesn't see that. So he doesn't think he's losing much business.
Do his competitors charge the same prices as him? If they are charging more, then the people going there are foolish. No point paying 5% more in order to get 2% in rewards.
While a mom-and-pop business may miscalculate the benefit vs. cost, larger businesses have people specifically hired to crunch the numbers and decide these things. The supermarket near me that doesn't accept credit cards is probably the busiest one in town. But as
tmiw said, it depends on the competition in the industry. Electric utilities usually don't accept credit cards, because it's not like you can choose a different company. In highly competitive industries, like restaurants, most places will accept credit cards and absorb the costs.