Comment by klardotsh
8 days ago
The number of places one can reasonably use cash anymore is rapidly shrinking. Some places it’s truly impossible.
I do believe this is a policy failure and that a law should exist mandating cash acceptance “for all debts public and private”, but there is nearly zero chance of such a law ever passing in the US.
The law does mandate that. It's just that most purchases are not debts.
I’ve never seen anywhere that doesn’t accept cash? Where have you experienced this?
In the UK, but parking quite often these days has machines that are out of order so please use one of these 500 apps "for your convenience".
At the market, there is a high cost to managing cash and so some of the small sellers will only accept cash reluctantly or not sell because they can't break notes.
Cash is basically dead here already; it's been months since I needed to go to an ATM and I no longer carry coins, apart from a few pounds in the car for parking. But even then parking is mostly cashless (yes, annoying app problem). Even the compressed air machine at the petrol station takes £1 contactless. Street food vendors etc seem to have gone cashless so they can avoid the inconvenience and cost of cash handling (banks hate taking coins).
Used car? Bank transfer.
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Parking is a special case because the meters aren't attended by people.
Guarantee any individual market stall seller would rather take exact cash than not make a sale at all. Small firms might not, since their cashiers have to work in the process the owner sets. Owner-operators will do anything for money or soon go out of business.
Restaurants in big cities and sports stadiums. It's called a cost saving effort, but with restaurants especially it's usually to discourage poor people from trying to come in.
I think some theme parks have started. Not accepting cash should be illegal, and certain places have started implementing laws that make the practice illegal. There are various reasons why a person is unable to have a bank account.
Increasingly common at smaller businesses in western Washington (have seen this in Seattle, Bellingham, and occasionally elsewhere).
Even where it's "technically" possible, it's becoming more difficult. Some grocery stores around here don't staff traditional teller lanes at night, shrinking down to only self-checkout, which are card-only machines. To pay cash, you'll have to escalate to the roaming attendant (or at least, I assume they can find some way to accept cash for that transaction? I can't say I've tried)
Common in the UK, which I feel will hit them in the face when the Internet Research Agency knocks the payment processing offline for a few days.
I've seen retail businesses in NYC and NJ that were no cash. I think NYC has banned that practice, but I'm not sure if that has held.
As mentioned super common in the UK but in the US nearly every sports/concert/event venue above a certain size is 100℅ cashless these days (on top of strictly requiring a specific mobile app to gain entry in the first place)
At livenation concert venues. But the concessions vendors still have a prominent cash tip jar at these cashless venues.