Think this will become a fad? Commerce, a restaurant in New York’s Greenwich Village, no longer accepts cash. Think about that. They accept credit and debit cards, but not paper cash or change. Check it out in today’s Wall Street Journal.
Why?
Why would Commerce do such a thing? It seems that a restaurant would be screening out a number of customers if it wished to deny cash as a form of payment. However, Commerce was apparently doing 90% of their business with plastic anyway. The article mentions that Commerce will still accept tips in greenbacks, but paying for the meal is all credit or debit.
The article and the comments attached mention some reasons why it may be smart to make this move. First, as the owner of Commerce mentions, there is no need for armored cars and no worry about employees or others robbing the registers. Also, people who only have cash may be of a more unsavory character and Commerce probably doesn’t want to court that crowd in the first place.
On the flip side, the risks removed from Commerce’s side may be transferred to the
- “Sorry, we can’t take that!” (Seth Anderson)
customers. Restaurants have unrestricted access to credit and debit cards for some time when a bill is paid. This may lead to more identity theft if cash starts to be shunned at restaurants. Additionally, customers end up having the costs of the transaction fees charged by credit card companies passed on to the prices of their meals and cocktails.
Hmm…
Do you think that stores and restaurants will start to switch to a credit/debit only system? Personally, I use my credit card already at restaurants. As I mentioned in a previous article, I have a mtvU credit card (technically, I just got switched to the Citi Forward) which gives me ThankYou points at a 5% rate at restaurants. Still, I know lots of people who still use cash when eating out.
Given a choice, I’ll pick paying by plastic, but it would be nice to have the option of paying with cash if I was so inclined. I’m all for consumer choice in this situation; some people use cash or debit for budgeting reasons or otherwise, and I would want to ensure that they were able to use their cash ‘for all debts, public or private’. What do you think?
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