Cash only is king for two Aussie hospo venues
Smokey Cape Supabake bakery in South West Rocks on the NSW North Coast has bucked the cashless society trend and only accepts cash.
Owners Letitia Thomas and Sam James told Yahoo Finance that cash is king.
"A lot of people are coming in from out of town and saying, 'Thank God you're cash-only we just like to use cash," Thomas said.
The bakery, which has been open for 12 years, has only ever accepted cash.
"We don't have those extra fees [associated with card purchases]," she told Yahoo Finance. "The girls are serving customers quicker as well."
The business isn’t backlash free though.
"My staff were abused a lot by people coming from the cities," she said. "Like, 'Why won't you take EFTPOS, it's ridiculous' and they get the shits.
"So we just put a sign up that said please just accept our decision to be cash only."
Thomas says her clientele is older and only buy a few bread rolls at a time. She also says the business avoids issues such as blackouts or system issues.
King River Tavern in Albany, Western Australia is another cashless venue. Owner Sam James, told Yahoo Finance "I just find it easy. I had faith in my way to run my business the way I see fit. And I don't judge myself, I know that it's right for me.
"And if people don't like it, they cannot come here, I don't really care," she said.
James has been running the pub for more than two decades. In 2005, she realised how much money she was spending on her EFTPOS machine.
"Even though there's still a few people that say, 'Oh, that's ridiculous' ... the majority are just like, 'That's great, finally I've got somewhere to spend my cash'," she said.
"I hear lots of stories of places where people have been and the system has fallen down and they're the only lucky ones that have cash."
James lauded the honesty of customers who come back the next day to settle the bill, if they didn’t have cash on them initially.
Although these two businesses have bucked the trend, according to The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) 72 per cent of Aussies were classed as low-cash users in 2022. This means people were using physical cash for just 20 per cent or less of their transactions.
Cash Welcome founder Jason Bryce told Yahoo Finance that cash is required across regional Australia.
"Some people rely on cash, trust cash, they do their budgeting with cash, they take their money out on payday or pension day, and that's their money for the fortnight," he said.
"And for those people, they need to just be able to feel like they're not going to lose that ability.
Jonathan Jackson, 15th April 2024
