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Comment by MoonWalk

6 hours ago

You obviously don't know any small-business owners and didn't read the article.

Credit-card issuers in the USA are a textbook example of a consumer- and retailer-harming monopoly.

I think credit card fees are often positioned against what businesses believe is the cost of cash, i.e. zero.

However, with cash one needs to have / has / has to pay for:

* a more complex register * a person who takes more time to do the transaction * someone who counts the register at the end of the day to ensure it matches * someone who drives to the bank to deposit the money (at random times) * additional insurance * a bank account which probably charges for these cash services

If you don't count time, then cash is better.

And also, in Europe, if you as a business prefer cash, we all know it means that you make X, but you only report X/2.

  • But unless you don't accept cash at all, you have to do that anyway.

    • I've been to several cashless cafes that just had a Square tap thingy.

      That said, I expect the cost of taking cash does scale to some degree with how much of it you take. Obviously you still need a cash register, but if only 10-20% of your business is cash, maybe it only needs to be reconciled and emptied out every second or third day? And it's a faster and lower stakes process if there's less in it? Insurance is cheaper as well if the total loss is 1/10 what it would be if every dime was passing through there.