Isn’t the fee from just eat about 20% in total? Surely that’s what’s causing the biggest problem for takeaways.
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It’s probably 14% if you’re using your own drivers, Uber Eats is 13? Or something. But the setup fees for either aren’t fun. Use their driver? You’re talking something like 30%.
I find that honestly a dark kitchen probably would work better. In my opinion, you’d be able to crank prices up quite a bit.
Would be willing to test the concept too, I think it would be a fun project. However I don’t think I could even afford a Subway franchise lmao
There’s always a danger in extrapolating a general trend from your own anecdotal experience, so with that caveat: my local “corner shop” type shop does accept card for anything at all and also does sell the classic Happy Shopper and cheap sweets for kids type stuff.
It also, just about, makes a profit overall during the year. So if they can do it most others probably can too.
My feeling is a lot of these places which don’t like cards think that cards are as expensive as they were 20 years ago. Since then the interchange cap has resulted in reduced fees and things like iZettle/SumUp/Square have become available. They charge a low flat percentage fee, after you’ve bought the device, so are much better value than traditional card agreements.
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Of course, but it’s also the customer’s choice on who they want to trade with and how they want to pay.
If paying your business is perceived to be “a faff”, then you will lose customers. It might still be worth it to lose those customers vs increase your costs to be able to serve them, but it’s an impact on your business nonetheless.
The reverse sort of argument is also true for cashless businesses. They exclude cash-preferring customers, and this will result in some loss of custom in most cases (however, this is likely to be more than offset by the lack of cash-related overheads).
The “problem” now, for those who do trade only in cash, is that there is becoming an ever more significant customer expectation that they will be able to pay with card. If your business can’t accept that, you do lose probably lots of casual customers.
For the average customer in all this, the payments landscape is complicated as still you must carry some cash plus a card to be able to pay everywhere. You now cannot rely on either payment alone. However, the balance does seem to be tilting in favour of card over cash (in other words, if you had to carry only one, card would allow you to pay more often and more readily than cash most of the time).
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I’ve just had a think, and my home town seems to have a lot more ATM’s than it should.
(From memory, I can count at least a dozen within a mile of home)
It is however very rare you see them in use these days.
Surprisingly though, our local shop at work has 2 ATM’s which are regularly used, but that could just be down to location.
The changing use of cash will definitely play into which ATMs get closed.
Historically, it wasn’t uncommon for shopping centres, etc to have a major cluster of ATMs to allow for cash withdrawal to (presumably) spend in the shops.
Nowadays, I would hazard a guess that a large amount of cash usage is person-to-person payments or smaller retailers, often in more isolated locations.
Cash machines in areas where people go anyway, for “picking up some cash” while going something else, are probably most likely to stay.
The cash machines primarily used in the past for immediate spend are more likely to be axed as people switch to spending directly on their cards. Ditto bank branch cash machines, which usually go when branches close.
Again we are fortunate for a small town. We still have branches of:
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TSB (with 2 ATM’s)
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Nationwide
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Nat West
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HSBC (with 2 ATM’s)
In fact, the only bank ATM we have lost is Barclays (which closed it’s branch in 2018)
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Of course it is. And I’m sure “my local merchant” is fully aware that he will lose custom in those cases where some unsuspecting passing customer comes in cashless.
I’m not sure what the danger is. I’m quite clear in my own mind that I’m referring to a tiny minority of the trading economy.
My take is simply - if it’s what they want to do - so be it. Many of that few will not in the least be wooed by the arguments made here to adopt card usage - not matter how right or logical those arguments are.
My original use case still holds for me. Tipping by card is easy - where it’s appropriate. I can think of a whole slew of situations where folding stuff was, is, and shall be - the order of the day 
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The nearest town to me now has no banks, but at one time it had branches of both HSBC and Lloyds.
The next-nearest town did have, until recently, a “full compliment” of branches from all the major banks but the retreat has also started there, with TSB closing in 2020.
There are probably quite a few places now that don’t have easy access to branches, like us, and that can make accepting cash for businesses more awkward.
We do have a small Post Office concession in the nearest town, but that’s probably quite awkward for businesses.
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BT Halo 3+ is an overpriced extra on an already overpriced broadband product.
By definition, the only time you need their Plus add-on is when their broadband is faulty and charging you to mitigate their faulty line is plain cheek but then this is BT…
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It will depend on the business.
Many hairdressers and barbers ‘rent a seat’ from the owner and are essentially self-employed.
I seriously doubt these will be going to the bank everyday with takings.
BT has never failed me so yes it’s complete overkill but I think they gave me an offer so I didn’t mind.
The person I’m talking about is the actual owner of the barbers. He doesn’t have a till or anything so probably the smart thing to do.
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It depends how much you pay.
BT can be quite flexible on renewal deals - I am on their 80/20 FTTC product and pay just over £22/month
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Retention / renewal deals are different.
Negotiated £22 something for FTTP 330/50 including Halo 1 for family.
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Back on topic, was using the Post Office (to post a package) forgot to ask for cash at the counter but decided to the use their external ATM. Wasn’t paying attention and got my debit card out at the PO window not noticing that their ATM was no more! Apparently, PO have renegotiated their ATM contract with Bank of Ireland.
Indeed - it went a bit under the radar but is going to result in a fairly dramatic reduction in the country’s ATM network.
Here we are almost at the end of September 21 and I’ve been to an ATM just four times this year, and that was four times too many. I think I’ve used physical cash about a dozen times this year, and that was a dozen times too many. I absolutely long for the day we get rid of physical cash. Getting rid of ATM’s would also prevent the millions of pounds in damage caused from gangs ripping ATM’s out of the buildings they’re attached to, and of course if the ATM’s were gone, then so are the card skimming devices that are sometimes found either crudely or professionally installed in the card slot.
Ok, I get it, some people are still necessarily reliant on cash, but that situation, like so many things in life, can’t go on. I still think if anyone believes we’ll be using physical cash in another 30 years, then they’re more than optimistic.
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A local village’s Barclays had their ATM ripped out by a gang using a JCB a while ago, and I sometimes joke that it was an inside job since it gave them a perfect excuse to close down the branch - they never repaired the damage and simply vacated the village! 
This initiative might help those who rely on (or simply prefer) cash to continue accessing it more easily.
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