How common are cashless stores?
 

I don't know if this is the right forum to discuss this (so feel free to move it) but I noticed something new on a couple of recent trips to the US...cashless stores. A kiosk in the FLL airport that only took credit cards and a hotel lobby store in LAS where you could only pay by card or charge it to your room.

This isn't a problem for me since I rarely use cash anymore (no points earned that way :D) but I can see how it might be for some people. Is this becoming a common thing?

I don't believe so. I know there's a Waitrose that has done that but it's on a corporate campus. There's also a supermarket chain in the Netherlands. But common? No.

It is uncommon. But, it is very much a growing trend. Cashless does not mean that a credit card is the only method of payment. Many of these vendors also take debit cards, prepaid cards, and many types of digital payments (think ApplePay). In addition, some of these cashless locations also have a kiosk which converts cash to a prepaid debit card for a fee.

While there is the potential for inconvenience, the security costs associated with cash are a cost factor and the demographic which these locations seek to attract does not use cash anyway.

Sweden is virtually cashless now, and apparently is expected to be that way in a few years.

And try paying with ca$h onboard a US based airline ;)

But reason for going cashless there may be another story (maybe) which was confirmed by a former FA :eek:

It's illegal in at least one state, Massachusetts. All businesses must accept cash.

I don't think they're all that common (yet) for day to day purchases, at least where I live. If anything, there are more businesses that have minimum purchase amounts and/or surcharge for card use than ones that don't accept cash at all. I suspect that the US won't be close to completely cashless unless swipe fees go way down--and lowering those fees would be problematic for consumers as well.

Speaking of cashless, I don't think I've ever seen anyone pay for a rental car or hotel room with cash. Is that still an option?

It is a slow trend, but I have been seeing it in Canada now as well (maybe not in PEI, but definitely in Toronto) with a lot of newer businesses, typically food and beverage establishments.

If almost all of your customers are not using cash, there is definite rationale for not accepting it. Cash is expensive to accept when you factor in additional time needed to count, go to the bank, bank fees for making deposits, potential for employee theft, robbery, loss, additional security costs etc., that in more and more cases makes it more expensive than the fees associated with accepting card payments.

It may be on the books, but it's not widely enforced. There a few places that do not accept cash, including tolls on bridges and the turnpike.

https://www.bostonglobe.com/business...ENO/story.html

I saw someone try to rent a hotel room without a credit card a few months ago. I was waiting in the lobby of a Hampton Inn when a man and his kids approached the desk and tried to get a room with cash. The clerk explained that they could do it but would need a substantial cash deposit in addition to the cost of the room. The man tried to argue that they often stayed at other hotels and didn't have to leave so much money. I had to leave before I saw how it ended but it was an interesting discussion. It was particularly amusing when the mother came in later and the little girl shouted to her "This is a REALLY expensive hotel!"

Note that many toll roads in the US are EZPass or other similar device only. Those without a transponder receive a mailed invoice which includes a significant processing fee.

Uber & Lyft don't take cash.

It is not yet a pervasive practice in the US, but it is certainly coming over time.

Surely you're not implying that PEI is behind the times :eek: Actually trends usually don't get here until a year or two after the rest of the country. There are probably arbitrage opportunities in buying discounted items that are out of fashion elsewhere and selling them here at a markup as the latest trend :D

My local Starbucks in Calgary is part of a cashless trial. For the first week or two they were allowing people to top up Starbucks cards by cash but they don't allow that either now. Personally I love it as the amount of people who used to pay with change drives me crazy! It's almost as annoying as the people who wait till they get to the checkout to find their purse/wallet. (There is a special place in hell for those people!)

Well,

they didn't know that they were going to ask them to pay this time AGAIN :rolleyes:

Everyone's opinion is likely different as to whether cashless is more advance or not, but in China between Alipay and Wechat the only people who use cash are the foreigners.

I find US folks think of themselves as leaders, but in many things are becoming laggards in adopting new technology.

I can't for the time ATMs and moneyexchanges become relics like phone booths:D

Does that law extend to Massachusetts airspace? :confused:

I believe all the legacy airlines now are cashless on their mainline plane flights (for purchases onboard), though confusingly their regional jet subsidiaries are often still cash only (ie, the exact opposite :eek:!).

Do they have to avoid selling stuff onboard while they're flying over Massachusetts? :confused: