i think anyone seeing very many piles of merchandise abandoned at checkout would be wise to review such decisions. it would definately be a failure to consider area demographic
But from a business point if view, cash is super expensive to deal with.
As a side-effect of an acquisition we inherited a small number of customers that paid in cash. Turns out it's expensive to bank that cash, it's a security risk, it's a risk to the person transporting it and so on.
In the general case, if most sales are already by card, the marginal gains of cash transactions are consumed by the cost of dealing with the cash.
I'm not saying stores should be cashless, but it's worth understanding that accepting cash is very much "not free".
How does that cost of accepting cash compare to the interchange fees? I’ve heard business owners say interchange fees were their single largest expense after payroll.
I’ve also gotten discounts on large purchases for paying “cash” (check). They effectively deducted the interchange fee from my bill. If cash was so expensive to process, they wouldn’t be doing this.
Again it'll vary by area. For us the cash was a lot more expensive. (Banks charge to deposit cash, and many of our bank branches don't accept cash anyway, so we have to go a bit further.)
Fortunately it was little enough that we didn't need a cash-transit vehicle, and it didn't affect our insurance.
Yes, I expect some merchants offer a cash discount, and that can add up for large purchases. But I'd prefer not to be carrying large amounts of cash. (We haven't had checks here for probably 15 years or so.)
We have a very efficient (and cheap) direct deposit system though, so I can pay via my phone straight from my bank app for a very nominal flat fee. So for large transactions that's akin to a cash discount.
The Bank of Canada did a report about this a few years back, and found that cash was the cheapest payment form for merchants to handle for transactions of up to $6 while debit cards were cheaper above that point; credit cards of course were never the best option for merchants.
