Notice more and more restaurants taking cash only

[gmarc]

First it was the red bar and now johnny mctiques and the new pickle factory take cash only.. Maybe its the only way they can survive. The last 10 years with almost everything going to plastic i find the countermovement to cash interesting as it surely prevents some people from coming.

 

[Green Knight]

Long as the place as an ATM on site I have no problem with this policy..The 3 Percent Visa and Mastercard take and the 4 to 5 Percent AMEX takes can really be the difference whether a place can survive or not in this economy...I know of several places that stopped taking Visa on June 1 when their new policy went into effect that the business could no longer add on 2.95 Percent of the Bill to cover the Transaction Cost...

 

[gmarc]

Anything to do with tax man you think?I wish i was an all cash business

 

[SHELLY]

Interesting observations all.

.

 

[Kurt]

Isn't it "cash or check"? ATMs don't always worl and sometimes run out of cash on busy nights. And they charge several dollars to use.

I always assumed it was all about taxes. I suppose the establishment also makes money on ATM fees.

 

[jodiFL]

the majority of it comes from the increasing rates charged for processing credit cards not to mention that charge-backs from customers after the fact can costs businesses hundreds of dollars a month. I noticed that when the economy started going south alot of people would tell their CC company that something was wrong with a meal , they were over charged etc.. when there was no mention of it at time of service and the credit card cos. would automatically take the charge off the persons card and deduct it from the businesses deposits. That can really take a toll on a small business.
EDIT: oh yea and the increasing problems with identity theft.... the first thing a thief usually gets is a CC and anything charged that is found to be fraudulent is also deducted from a businesses account sometimes months or even a year or more after the purchase. So there is alot more to it than a business trying to evade taxes and trying to make a customer use an ATM for a fee.

 

[Jdarg]

The Red Bar has been cash/check for as long as I can remember.

 

[jodiFL]

The Red Bar has been cash/check for as long as I can remember.

yep... they have never accepted CCs. McTighes never has either.

 

[flipflopsgrill]

My Visa/MC/Discover fees went from about 2% last year to as high as 4.8% recently and it is killing us on the CC sales. I don't want to go all cash as this makes it difficult for some patrons, but I am considering charging a $.50 to $1.00 fee to cover my added cost, if a customer chooses to use a CC. Do you think customers will gripe about this? Our small restaurant can't keep eating the cost. Opinions wanted?

Shea at Flip Flops.

 

[gmarc]

I don't recall pickle factory or mctigues taking checks. I thought cash only.