© CBS
At busy New York City lunch spot Two Forks, owner Michael Kaplan has banned cash to keep the lines moving faster. "With every cash transaction, the payment process was slowing down significantly," he said in an interview with CBS News.
Yet while cash is now barred at the fast-casual restaurant, most customers seem to be embracing the switch.
"I never have cash on me -- I always have my card on me. So for me, it's pretty much easier," said Two Forks customer Alex Yanoff.
From coffee shops to larger restaurant chains, more businesses are now banning bills. Proponents say eliminating hard currency is not only faster, it also reduces the risk of robberies.
But not everyone's buying into it. Opponents argue that refusing to accept legal tender discriminates against people without cards, who may be on low incomes. And in some places, efforts are underway to actually ban businesses from banning cash.
Chicago Alderman Edward Burke is pushing the City Council to make it illegal for businesses to embrace the practice. "It's user-unfriendly," he told CBS in an interview late last year. "It's elitist, and it shouldn't be permitted." The policy is already illegal in Massachusetts.
Dos Toros Taqueria owners Leo and Oliver Kremer said they rarely have to turn away cash-loyal customers.
"It just feels like that's where everything is going. China is there already. India is halfway there. A lot of parts of Europe are mostly cashless," Leo Kremer told CBS News.
To encourage establishments to go cashless, Visa (V) has offered thousands of dollars to small businesses to only take cards. None of the businesses featured in this story say they were given any money to go cashless.
When I arrived in the US (I lived in Texas) no such technology was to be seen. Then five years or so later this technology became available where it lived, now it's everywhere.
Makes me wonder now on reflection, was this just a trial, all those years back then (can't help the tinfoil hat sometimes).
As for cash, it is becoming a thing of the past, it is so much easier to create a virtual world, just like the printing of money, it is virtually infinite.
But also strikes me that many beneficial technologies for humanity have been co-opted for nefarious interests. I still believe that humanity is a vast co-operative, that is why we have survived for so long, if we were dirty down and mean, we would have destroyed everything that walks talks and moves long ago.