Re: Cash on the barrel head
You only accept cash? Then I have several problems with that - I don't carry cash, therefore I won't use you, therefore I won't bother with you, therefore I probably won't even remember to use you again even if I'm walking past the shop with cash in my hand.
Also, it makes me worry about what you're doing tax-wise. Sure, a lot of places deal legitimately in 100% cash. But it worries me, and when was the last time you got a receipt with your fish and chips?
Past that, if you choose a single vendor (in an age where for £50 I myself can get a credit card reader that charges minimal percentages and deposit direct into my bank whether I use it once a year or a thousand times a day) and you can't be bothered to have a backup from another manufacturer, it makes me wonder how important taking money from your customers actually is.
Tougher in a big-brand store, sure, but you should have your own resiliencies and SLA's in such places. But if the chip shop won't take card because "the machine is down", then how long will it be down before you're losing money for the sake of a £50 backup under the counter? I'd say... what... 5-6 customers? That's a fast time to lose money for the sake of your customer's convenience.
And, no, I won't go to the ATM to draw out cash to take into a shop to pay for something. Besides the fact that it's a pain in the butt, it also leaves me with a pocket of change that I don't want. I've seen several people this week alone turn around and walk away because a shop won't take their card. I even saw a guy trying to buy nuts on an airplane and they took no cash, only card.
The tide turned already. Maybe 10, 20, 30 years ago. But nowadays? There is literally nothing that I can't pay for on card... and those places I can't always have a competitor just down the road who will take card (e.g. car parks, etc.).
It lets me track every penny of my money. It lets the taxman track every penny I give them (and I view tax evasion/avoidance as something that crushes smaller companies and competitors and steals my tax-funded resources without paying back). And it's much quicker, more hygienic, less waste (we have to PAY to mould those coins, you know, they aren't made of thin air), and ultimately you're gonna up end cashless in your old age whether you like it or not. You're not going to want to go to the ATM, carry round lots of money, try and squint at the numbers and count it out etc. versus a card that has a password on it and a guarantee of refund if you're ever defrauded.
Legal tender is not up for question here. It's not relevant. But handling *your* cash costs me whenever I use a firm that has to traipse to the bank, piss about with coin handling, security, coin modules on vending machines, etc. etc. etc. The costs must exceed that of handling a card, with a backup system.
If you don't take card, as far as I'm concerned it's similar to saying you don't take Luncheon Vouchers (as were), book tokens, gift vouchers, etc. We all laugh at those people with American Express, but you are literally refusing customer's money and inconveniencing them. Even the pound shops take cards. It honestly can't cost that much to have them.
As such, if they fail, and therefore you can't take money... it's probably not a company I want to be doing business with anyway. They couldn't even be bothered to buy an emergency £50 Zettle-or-whatever reading and stick it in the stockroom.