[sbeckeriv]

Why are businesses no longer accepting cash? What are the positives and negatives for businesses?

What are the positives and negatives of accepting cash for businesses? Other then 6 million people across the united states cannot buy from your shop.

I can guess at reasons for both but I do not run a business.

[legitster]

Cash is a nuisance for a small business. You're going to lose/miscount some not-insignificant percentage, and spend a lot of time and effort counting and storing it.

The benefit of accepting cash is, besides there being no processing costs, is that it makes it really easy to... uhhhh, fudge your revenue numbers. I've had a few cash transactions where I ask for a receipt from the business and the owner scowls at me.

> Other then 6 million people across the united states cannot buy from your shop.

Depending on the type of business you run, I can almost assure you these customers are not going to be in your target demographic.

[jjav]

> Depending on the type of business you run, I can almost assure you these customers are not going to be in your target demographic.

Don't be so sure. I'm plenty "banked" and will out of principle never buy anything from a place that does not take my cash.

Privacy is one of the most important freedoms we have and cash is absolutely vital to maintain that freedom.

The other vital freedom enabled by cash is the right to participate in commerce. With a third-party gated electronic payment, said third party (sometimes multiple third parties in the same transaction) all have a say on whether you get to spend your money or not. With cash, it's your money you spend it as you wish.

[legitster]

If privacy is important to you, prepaid debit cards are not a bad option.

I've also seen the extreme - in the part of the country I live it's not uncommon for people to pay for things like cars and houses with cash that they keep buried in their yards.

[jjav]

> If privacy is important to you, prepaid debit cards are not a bad option.

Agreed it's an option, but why bother adding a level of indirection and extra effort, I'd rather just pay cash.

[JumpCrisscross]

> Why are businesses no longer accepting cash? What are the positives and negatives for businesses?

It's expensive to store and transport. It gets stolen, by employees and robbers. You get handed bad bills.

[beaeglebeached]

I mean bank account get stolen by the government. They at least need lapdogs of the state to stomp their jackboots on the ground to take a bill out of your pocket.

[pengaru]

It's more work and risk, plain and simple.

But that's what business is, work and risk... I'm surprised more American cities haven't outright banned the practice for businesses serving their public since it's so clearly a form of discrimination.

[pizzalife]

Why? Because handling cash is expensive. You need to make trips to the bank (takes time + risk) to deposit, or you pay some company to do it for you (cost).

Positives: You don't need to deal with any of that.

Negatives: You can't take business from people who only have cash, but depending on what you're selling that might not really matter.

[superfrank]

Don't forget that there's far less risk of theft, both from employees and non-employees when there's no cash on site.

Also, needing to keep cash in small bills in the drawer to make change is a big pain in the ass.

[blibble]

the employees need to manage their floats too (counting before and after + balancing it)

and you likely need a safe on premises too when their floats under/overflow, and controls around that

cash is a huge pain in the ass

[ensignavenger]

There is a lot of labor involved in counting and tracking cash in a retail business. You need to manage change, many businesses worry about cashiers stealing from the registers and thus have separate cash drawers for each cashier. Cash has to be secured against theft, you need to make deposits. All of this is much easier with electronic transactions.

[rawgabbit]

If you ever work at a 7-11 in the US, you will get to experience a gun pointed at you so they can rob you for less than $30 because that is all that is allowed in the cash register at any time.