In the rush to provide ever-faster service, some businesses in both Canada and the U.S. are forgoing cash altogether.
In Canada, there’s no legal requirement for businesses to accept cash; sellers are allowed to determine the method of payment.
“No law requires anyone to accept bank notes or any other form of payment to settle a commercial transaction,” Josianne Menard, Bank of Canada senior media relations consultant, told the Toronto Sun.
A rotisserie chicken franchise known as Flock recently went cashless at four of its five Toronto restaurants after finding its cash-paying customers only accounted for three per cent of its transactions.
In the U.S., Starbucks runs at least one cashless store in Seattle, and Sweetgreen – a chain of salad-focused fast-food restaurants – recently went cashless at about 100 of its U.S. locations.
Another fast-food chain, Chopt Creative Salad Co., now has six cash-free locations across Manhattan.
“We were responding to the consumer demand. They told us over time that speed is of the utmost importance,” Nick Marsh, Chopt chief executive, told Bloomberg last fall.
Before the change, Marsh estimated less than 10 per cent of the transactions at its Manhattan locations were cash.