\n<\/p>\n
Last night, when I was settling up at the dive bar, I began thinking once again about the tradeoffs of technology. I was thinking about it because I paid in cash.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Post-pandemic, it seems that more people than ever are using credit cards for payments;\u00a0they are now the vast majority of transactions, according to a report from Capital One<\/a>. Not that my life is representative \u2014 I am a freak \u2014 but this bears out among my friends as well. I am frequently the only person carrying cash.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Some of this is just that I like cash; it inherently makes it easier for me to budget because I can\u2019t spend money I don\u2019t have. I also enjoy that it doesn\u2019t sign me up for stores\u2019 email lists. And \u2014 I did tell you I was a freak, didn\u2019t I? \u2014 there is very little in my life that is more satisfying than coming up with exact change. But lately I\u2019ve noticed a trend in Oakland, at least, where a lot of retail establishments are offering discounts for cash payments.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n This makes sense. Sure, there are benefits to letting customers pay with cards: they are likely to spend more (the Capital One report says three times<\/em> as much), you can track them, it doesn\u2019t require a cashier to make change (which can mean faster transactions); it is easier to ask for a tip<\/a>, though it\u2019s not guaranteed your server will get all of it<\/a>. But there is also a transaction fee associated with the card; the discounts I\u2019m seeing at bars, shops, and restaurants for cash payments mean that retailers are simply passing that fee on to customers.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n I think a lot about what our society\u2019s default modes are, because those things are \u201cnormal\u201d and thus invisible<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n