To refuse to shop in places with a minimum card spend?

[kenchurch]

Not sure if I am being unreasonable or not.

It's 2018 and almost everyone used a debit (or credit) card to buy things.
I very rarely carry cash on me.

I point blank refuse to shop anywhere with a minimum total spend to be able to use my card.

Example; I'd fancied a specific type of chocolate all day and had a fairly rubbishy day. Went to shop with £1.05 in change (!). This chocolate is usually £1. It was £1.20, so I went to use my card, but no, minimum £5 spend. So I put the chocolate back, and the guy said he had other types for £1, but instead of giving in and getting one, I just said no thanks and left.

I'm sorry that it costs you to have a card reader etc, but other business also have extra costs associated with the modern age, such as WIFI or other softwares.

It's part of the cost of running a shop so face it and swallow it.

AIBU?

YABU- go and spend your money at a Tesco Local and let the independents go to the wall. Fuck ‘em!

I see more and more threads like this. Honestly, how hard is it to carry £10 or so around with you?

I do find it quite a hassle to ensure I always have cash on me, actually - and I don't see why it's entitled of me to massively prefer, and nearly exclusively use, shops that accept cards for all transactions? After all, I can shop wherever I like.

You’ve obviously never owned a small business. If you had, you might understand. Plus all the other shit that comes with a business now like work place pensions. Where do you think that money comes from? Trees?

If you can't afford to offer your employees the legally mandated requirements - pension, mat leave, etc. - then you don't actually have a viable business.

Honestly, how hard is it to carry £10 or so around with you?

£10, mate? Got anything smaller? I haven't got much change.

The shops that don't take cards also whine when you give them a £10 note, and then count out the change in a mixture of 50p and £1 coins, tutting the while. They don't want me to pay for a £1 transaction with a card, and they don't want a £10 note either. So they want me to carry a range of coins so I can get over their inability to break a small note, their inability to take cards and their inability to take my money without whining.

There's nothing quite so dispiriting as thinking you're being supportive by going to a small shop, and getting a bad-tempered owner who won't be happy however you pay him. Shops like that don't deserve to be in business, because they confuse "owning a business" with "being a martyr".

There are small businesses which are a joy to do business with. Usually, they're the ones were the owner isn't a bad-tempered whinger, oddly enough.

Plus all the other shit that comes with a business now like work place pensions.

Remind me: why is it that small business should be supported? They're the ones that think that their staff being paid decently is "shit", right?

Thanks for that. I'll remember it next time small shop owners are complaining about things. Your staff's legal entitlements are "shit".

go and spend your money at a Tesco Local and let the independents go to the wall. Fuck ‘em!

Now we learn that paying staff properly is "shit" then, yep, fuck 'em.

It cost 0.7% to pay cash into the bank, so unless they are tax avoiding it is cheaper to get their money by card

Not necessarily. Small shops probably use cash at the Cash and Carry the clue being in the name and all that and they may also pay staff in cash, fill up a cash machine as mentioned by a PP or pay themselves. Some may be tax avoiding, but many won't be.

I think the problem is, and something we should all be mindful of, is that all these card transactions cost money, and there is a middleman making a fortune by taking a tiny bit of every transaction (as well as banks with card payments, also Just Eat etc) and that manifests itself in higher prices and lower profits for businesses. And to some small businesses, those card transaction costs may make a difference to whether or not they are viable.

There was a thread a few weeks ago by someone who 'couldn't understand why anyone bothers with cash any more' but the reality is that, to anyone over about 40, for most of our adult lives, we have been faced with some businesses or other services like parking meters being cash only, or a minimum spend being imposed due to the fees, so carrying cash is an ingrained habit.

I do find myself paying by card more than I used to, but still feel like a bit of a twat using my card for less than about a fiver, so I routinely carry a bit of cash, which is no hassle at all. I just get £30 out of the cash machine, ends up being every few weeks, and then repeat once I get down to less than a tenner or when I know I will need to have some cash on me.

I couldn't imagine carrying no cash at all - there are so many instances where it is cash only (parking meters, some takeaways) that I wouldn't want to be stuck in that situation.

I couldn't imagine carrying no cash at all - there are so many instances where it is cash only (parking meters,

In every city I visit parking is either phone or cash, or phone only. I haven’t been anywhere that the parking was cash only in years.

I now have a thing on my car keys which doubles as a supermarket trolley coin, but recently I found another supermarket as I didn’t have a pound (I usually keep a coin in the car, for some reason it had disappeared).

All my local takeaways take cards.

I don’t live in London. I live quite easily without cash (or cheques) probably 29 days a month. I get some cash for a farmers’ —tax evasion— market (the prices they charge the can afford 2.75%) but probably in a year or so will stop.

In every city I visit parking is either phone or cash, or phone only. I haven’t been anywhere that the parking was cash only in years

If you go walking in the countryside, or have a day at the seaside or a country park, those parking meters are usually cash only.

The Chinese takeaway and fish and chip shop we use are both cash only. Neither are on Just Eat or deliver either and both seem always busy.

National trust member, so parking free there. I probably would have some cash if visiting local places for local people. Cash only takeaways I can live without.

I am not saying “no one carries cash”, clearly. I am saying I can and do function without cash, and therefore that I am unwilling in general to do business with cash only businesses. That may be my loss.

Our local shop charges 35p for spending under a fiver on a bank card, which we gladly pay.

They also have had a free cash machine fitted so we have the option of taking cash out and using that instead.

Our local shop rocks :)

Usually, there is a flat fee for debit card transactions and a percentage charge on credit card transactions. That’s why until recently, budget airlines, for example, charged extra for credit card transactions.

They have to pay for energy, too, but that's not a reason to carry a torch on the off chance I should find myself in a local shop for local people that doesn't have lights.

And those costs are factored into the profit margin. If small retailers got things to sell at huge discounts (like tesco etc) then they could keep prices as low as big retailers. Then add few pence to each product to make up for card charges.

Which is what the big reatilers do. They get huge discounts, then factor in running costs. But can still sell cheaper than small shops because of the huge discount. Card transaction fees are charged in places like tesco. Its factored in so everyone (wether paying cash or card) pays a little towards all running costs on every product. Even those customers wanting to pay cash.

Small shops dont factor it in so they can keep costs as low as possible and the customers who pay for the service are the ones using it. Not everyone.

Gosh, the arrogance of some posters on this thread is breathtaking. I use cash for small transactions and card for everything else.

I live rurally and there are still so many instances where cash is more practical - DD's school bus, parking in Morrisons requires a £1 coin (which gets knocked off your shopping), trolleys at Aldi and various other places. We go to a lot of food festivals and not every stall has card machines. Our local market has very few stall holders with card machines. Fund raising at school - non uniform days and bake sales are cash only.

I like to support local businesses and am not too stupid to understand that they don't enjoy the economies of scale that large chains do

Some posters sound like the sort of difficult customer shop keepers hate.

I always keep an emergency £20 in my phone case. I’ve never come across any of the “whiney” retailers mentioned previously - I usually apologise for nothaving anything smaller and they say “that’s OK” and give me normal change.

They aren’t imposing a minimum transaction for fun.

I live very rurally and card is easier as no banks and atm few and far between, different strokes and all that, I’m not so stupid to think it’s the same everywhere and understand why cash is king in some places.
The nearest shop doesn’t mind as they prefer card for reasons above, it’s a trek to cash in.

They have to pay for energy, too, but that's not a reason to carry a torch on the off chance I should find myself in a local shop for local people that doesn't have lights.

Pmsl at this stupid rebuttal.

My DSS and girlfriend pay everything by card . If we have a take away with them we always end up giving the delivery person a tip as they don't even have a pound in cash. I feel quite twitchy if I don't have some "real" money in my purse plus I can't make card transactions to my grandkids!

I never have any cash on me, ever. I use the RinGo App for parking.

In OPs situation if I really wanted the chocolate that much I would have bought stuff to make up the minimum spend.

I use a card for nearly everything but I always have a “float” of about £30 on me - often the same cash for weeks and weeks. I just feel why wouldn’t keep some cash just in case?

Bloody hell!

Some of you have real problems with those of us running small businesses, don't you. The vitriol drips....

I am guessing you have fuck all idea of how important we are to the economy as a whole:

• Small businesses accounted for 99.3% of all private sector businesses at the start of 2017 and 99.9% were small or medium-sized (SMEs).
• Total employment in SMEs was 16.1 million; 60% of all private sector employment in the UK.
• The combined annual turnover of SMEs was £1.9 trillion, 51% of all private sector turnover in the UK.

And that is with this rather astounding fact (just to rebut the "Bastards taking advantage of staff " shite)

-In 2017 there were 1.3 million employing businesses and 4.3 million non-employing businesses. Therefore, 76% of businesses did not employ anyone aside from the owner(s). [my bold]

So the vast majority of us are sole traders and we generate 1% of all private sector turnover in the UK.

So excuse me whilst I read some of these posts and laugh... because whatever business you work for, we support you, make your company profitable!

• SMEs account for at least 99.5% of the businesses in every main industry sector.

Oops! we generate 51% of all private sector turnover in the UK.

I'm with you CuriousaboutSamphire
Some people are all about me me me. I like to think that I have more of a community spirit and do things not just for me but for the greater good of society - like supporting local business, markets etc.

I also think it is very short sighted and silly to assume that absolutely everywhere will take card payments for everything. It is always a good idea to have a bit of spare cash for emergencies.

It is really hard. I run the local business club and the weirdness of some people is quite horrifying!

We have a great local chandler... he sells nails in singles for 10p each, he also has bags of them that work out cheaper per nail.

Now, he doesn't get thanks for this. No. He gets the most ridiculous facebook reviews, he is greedy, 10p for a single nail? They're cheaper than that in B+Q... Yes, but only come in multi packs.

But B+Q multi packs are cheaper... yes, and are a 24 mile round trip away! He is a short walk away!

The posts go on and on and on. Lately there has been a lot of fuss about cash payments. We lost both our banks and that, apparently, means all small businesses should take cards. But we are rural, don't have solid wi fi/internet connection, hell we don't even manage to keep electricity and water all the time!

But that is no matter! It is the fault of the bloke in the local shop who works 16 hours a day, 6/7 days a week to provide a service to his often utterly ungrateful neighbours!

Who moan even more when he goes out of business... cos the buses aren't all that regular either!

I suspect t'internet, Amazon and social media in general has introduced a huge demand for cheap and instant gratification that the reality of the High Street just cannot meet.

But that is no matter! It is the fault of the bloke in the local shop who works 16 hours a day, 6/7 days a week to provide a service to his often utterly ungrateful neighbours!

But he's not a charity, is he? Why should people be 'grateful' for the service? I am, of course, polite to people in any shop I go into, whether a local independent or a chain, but I don't see why I should consider someone running a business in the hope of making themselves a profit as doing me a massive favour just by existing.