[tbw2]

McDonalds apparently installed card swipes because people spent about 30% more when they didn’t count out the cash or face the oh, crap I only have $10 cash on me.

That could be the incentive to pushing people to swiping cards - they tend to spend more than if limited by cash on hand.

[miserare]

Read “The Handmaiden’s Tale” to get a chilling picture of what happens when the plastic cards no longer “swipe”.

[SamAdams76]

Some chain restaurants like Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts now have a smartphone app where you can preload a digital cash card. Consumers can then just pull up the bar code on their phone and have it swiped for payment.

The beauty of this (for the restaurants) is that the consumer is encouraged to have the card re-load itself whenever the balance gets below a predetermined amount.

Let's say that Starbucks has ten million customers using this system and the average "re-load" point is $5. This means that Starbucks now has $50,000,000 in cash just sitting there on their customer's pre-paid accounts. Even if a 5% return, you are talking an income of $2,500,000 each year - all pure profit to Starbucks.

This represents cash that may never be used by the customer but Starbucks already has it on their books.

[Graybeard58]

McDonalds apparently installed card swipes because people spent about 30% more when they didn’t count out the cash or face the oh, crap I only have $10 cash on me.

********************************************************************

I’m seeing more and more card swipes on vending machines and for purchase of $1.00 or less.