In an age where cards are widely accepted, it seems some businesses across North Texas are already joining the cashless trend.
At her walk-up banh mi shop in the Cedars, Sandwich Hag owner Reyna Duong says a move to plastic only first happened out of convenience when she was just a pop up operation.
“The reconciliation part of it at the end of each event took at least a couple of hours trying to figure out, ‘Ok. Why were we over? Why were we short?” said Duong.
When a brick and mortar followed, so did the cashless policy.
It became about more than just efficiency when Duong learned about other businesses like her’s being targeted for crime.
“Every time we come to the window it’s very safe. [Employees] don’t feel in anyway threatened, or I guess less confident. That’s our main priority is crew safety,” said Duong.
Of course her second priority is the customer experience, which she believes is only strengthened when cash is not part of the equation.
Local
The latest news from around North Texas.
“We can actually focus on customer service and quality of food and all of that good stuff,” said Duong.
Duong said the policy has rarely caused problems with her customers. But around the country, there are opponents to ditching paper currency.
In Washington, D.C., a bill is even being introduced to prohibit businesses from not accepting cash.
“It really is a discrimination question, because there is a good percentage of the population that really doesn’t have a bank account and they don’t really have access to credit cards,” said CEO of the Profit Experts Fred Parrish.
Parrish said it is close to 27 percent worldwide. That is why he believes the United States has moved slower than many other parts of the world when it comes to plastic only transactions.
Meanwhile Duong said she is not sure if a cashless society is the way of the future. But for now, it works for her business.
“I think the idea is safety and efficiency, so that we can just focus on customer service,” said Duong.
