For small businesses, the cost accepting credit cards has about doubled over the past 12 months, according to my husband who works for a major credit card processor. If you're a small business, giving the card company 6% instead of 3% can really hurt the bottom line. Why should they forego what might be a big chunk of their profits for your convenience if there are enough others happy to pay cash? We dine regularly in a small Indian restaurant in our neighborhood, and it is strictly cash only, and almost always crowded, and I've never seen a customer fuss over paying cash.

Your point about it being "easy" to accept credit cards also is open to dispute. There's the equipment to maintain, and apparently the half life of a credit card reader can be measured in mere months, a phone line (often costing extra), training time for the staff on handling the cards, etc. Here in Silicon Valley there have recently been a number of news stories about fraud associated with debit and credit readers having intercept devices on them, which I would imagine opens up the business to liability problems.

Traveling in Denmark, Belgium and Germany - not exactly third world nations - we have found a significant number of hotels and restaurants which do not accept credit cards. Clearly the businesses feel they can survive just fine without customers who demand do business on their own terms.