Comment by OptionOfT
4 hours ago
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.