A World Of Cashless Payment

There are still “Mom and Pop” businesses today that have not updated any type of technology. Meaning, they only take cash, they may not have websites, do not provide apps for smartphones, etc… but the question here is, how much longer will businesses like this survive?

There are many positives that come along with Mom and Pop businesses. One being, the owners of the business are very aware of what is going on with their finances. Brian Tatar says, “The absence of computer automation and A.I. leads my past employers to become more involved in the financial process of their business.” The downside to this is that this type of system becomes very time consuming and may become very stressful for the business owners. Another positive to these types of businesses is that with only accepting cash payments, they do not need to pay fees that come along with the usages and fees of the credit card payments.

Businesses that are not up to date on the technology used in today’s society tend to miss out on a lot of business. As per personal experience working in a local retail store, not many people tend to use cash anymore and as a young adult myself, I find it a hassle to keep cash on hand. The younger generations are more equipped to using technological payments compared to cash.

Many of these smaller companies, not only in Buffalo alone, have had to close down a various number of stores due to the lack of business they receive from not updating their technology. Businesses such as barbershops and hair salons do not accept credit cards and have to turn away tons of customers on a daily basis because their customers do not carry cash.

Electronic payments such as bitcoin are becoming a reality and these small Mom and Pop businesses that do not accept any payment other than cash will have to do one of two things. The first being, adapting to the current and everchanging technology, or they will, unfortunately, go under and be forced to close because they will not be compliant with the types of payment used in today’s society.

These days, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, even large companies, for example, the grocery chain Wegmans would only accept contactless payment. Meaning, everything except cash.

The technology of the world we live in is ever-changing and unfortunately smaller businesses that refuse to update, will not succeed.

Tartar. B, [2020, October 3]. A Business Stuck in the 1950’s. Medium. https://medium.com/automation-and-a-i-in-the-finance-industry/a-business-stuck-in-the-1950s-756b8fe3fa96