Sainsburys checkout lady said that “lots of people are switching back to cash just now”

[Harpings]

I know it’s just one checkout person. But is this something others have noticed/ are doing? Just wondering if so and why it would be ?

I try to use cash wherever possible

Good luck trying to find shops open to buy stuff if the electrical grid goes down!

When our city lost power in Storm Desmond, cash wouldn't have helped you. Literally nothing was open.

Shops can't function without lighting, heating, refrigeration, security, tills, etc. (Well maybe the odd small private/independent one would operate by memory and torch for a short time just to sell off the perishables like milk etc).

But it still won’t compare to the large amounts that bigger businesses, multinational companies and the mega rich can and usually do get away with.

Yes this!

There will always be somewhere independent open to buy food for a short time.

I suppose you could always get the crowbars out and go looting.

I took £100 out of the bank at the start of the first lockdown in case we needed cash for anything and couldn't get into town to use the ATM. I still had most of it left at Christmas 2020 when I used what was left towards the big food shop, and I haven't had/used any cash since. On the odd occasion DH or DD has taken a tenner out of the bank for something specific (whip round at work for example) it's a novelty.

Cards are so much easier and more convenient for me. I used to put my spare change in a coin jar towards Christmas and usually had about £300 in it come December. My bank introduced an option to save your 'spare change' from daily transactions and put into a saving account, so a virtual coin jar - last year I saved almost £600 that way, so even that aspect is better.

I find cash dirty and cumbersome and I can't believe I used to almost solely use it!

I tried to pay in cash at a coffee shop chain (Gail's) the other day and they said they hadn't taken cash since covid! Not usually an issue for me but I was trying to use up my stash of cash that was lying around the house uselessly!

People switch to cash when they're not declaring their earnings properly too.

I declare my earnings, including people who pay me in cash, for some people it’s easier, more private and safer to pay in cash. I’m happy to accept bank transfer but for some of my clients it’s important they have the option to pay in cash.

@XDownwiththissortofthingX

The paranoia is utterly bizarre. Electronic card transactions have been around since the 80's. It's hardly some new fangled concept designed to defraud folk used to hoarding piles of cash in shoeboxes and under their mattresses

Of course the end of cash as a generally accepted method of payment would be terrible. Government across the globe have a history of tracking and monitoring citizens, and who knows what kind of governments the future will throw up. The option cash gives of private transactions between indivudals is absolutely vital to a free society. Doesn’t mean electronic payment is bad in the slightest, but the availability of both is vastly preferable to solely one or the other.

It seems like plenty of MNers seem to think that "cash" equates to "cash in hand".

Yes cards are convenient, and since Covid it has been made easier. Phones/Apple pay also easy (until you loose your phone..), a chip implant that you can't lose would make it even more easy and convenient.

This does drive me mad.
Please come in sit down order by app at the table. Despite these perfectly adequate service people here who could take your order and they will bring your food to the table anyway. No please do download an app that you wont use again for another year or more, wont work if you tick all those boxes to say no dont look through my phone, check my photos, require access to my social media, track me around for the next three months and sell that information.

I will now avoid these places if they make it mandatory, none have yet.

Mine too.

Consumers and customers paying cash is understandable, easier to budget and and a certain older generation don't get on with cards.

For 'cash only' businesses, I'm convinced it's tax evasion.

The facebook meme that states '£20 cash is always £20 cash' is absolute rubbish. It completely ignores the man hours cashing up and banking takes, the vulnerability of forgeries, staff 'till dipping' etc.

If banks really want to get rid of cash, they’ll start imposing/increasing charges for businesses to deposit cash -Lloyds currently charges £1 per £100 for cash, electronic transfers are free.
https://www.lloydsbank.com/business/retail-business/rates-and-charges.html

Absolutely, but there was always the option to go to a bank (before they started to disappear) and obtain new notes or coins. The problem these days is parking meters that don't accept any form of cash.

The conspiracy theory is that once we are cashless, governments can control us via a social credit system.
So if you do something wrong or against government policy, anti-social, etc they can limit your access to money and restrict what you can buy by putting blocks on your ability to use your cards. Meaning you would struggle to function in society without the means to buy housing, food, etc etc.

The thing is, once governments control this ability you are at the whim of what a government feels is socially acceptable.

With cash, there is less control over how you choose to spend it. It's less trackable.

China already has some aspects of this in place already with blacklists for citizens who renege on debts, so they can no longer purchase flights, train tickets, rent cars, etc.

Now you mention it, the queues for cash tills at M and S and Boots are getting bigger......

Oh here we go, people spending cash are obviously conducting life through nefarious activities, ffs.

I’m the same. Using my own bags stops me buying things on a whim too because if I don’t have the bags (or nice enough bags) I can’t buy the items I’m tempted by either. Last month I had to buy an outfit for an occasion and the shop owner asked if I could pay with cash as the item had already been reduced so to pay card fees on top was going to push her profits even further. I had to go quite some distance to find a cash machine but understood.

Nothing to stop people getting a simple debit card bank account such as Monzo, and just use it for small things like coffees, car parks, etc. Just bung a tenner or two on it and use it for trivial/small purchases. You could always even just leave it in the car for car parks and not carry it around.

Covid meant a lot of smaller businesses changed their attitudes to accepting card payments. I think the likes of the big supermarkets monitor spending habits very closely and respond to increases in cash being used more by making more self-service tills capable of taking cash because ultimately they want to make it as easy as possible for people to spend their money there.

One thing I've seen in Spain, but nowhere else that I've noticed, is cafes having an add on cash counting machine to the till. A staff member totals up the bill and if the customer pays cash the customer puts cash in and the staff member never touches it. The machine pays out the change. It's a hybrid version of a person operated till and self-checkout. Presumably this means customer can still pay cash for relatively low value items, the staff member doesn't have to change gloves in order to handle food after handling cash. No counting out change and tilling up is automated.

You don't need an app to use a QR code - your phone camera will read it for you... It is literally just a website address, but designed to make it easier so you don't have to sit and type it in, your phone will just read it from the QR code and take you straight to the website.

@reesewithoutaspoon

China already has some aspects of this in place already with blacklists for citizens who renege on debts, so they can no longer purchase flights, train tickets, rent cars, etc.

That's not a bad idea actually. At least it makes people more accountable and less likely to run up debts which they then just walk away from. Some kind of "punishment" to encourage people not to run up debts and if they do, to actually make more effort to repay is a good thing.

I agree. We had similar when we went to Yo! Sushi, it was a completely different process, all apps and QR codes etc. etc. that you had to understand just to be a paying customer there to eat. Totally detracted from the experience of picking dishes up whizzing past you on the conveyor belt and simply paying (by card or cash) afterwards. Awful. Awful. Needless to say we have not been back. I also clock those places that are cards-only and only provide email receipts, which require you to provide them with your email address.