Australian (ASX) Stock Market Forum

Cashless society

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JohnDe said:
I live close to five shops in various directions and distances:
  1. Coles,
  2. Independant fruit & veg with a full Deli section, and they rent space to a proper Butcher and Bakery
  3. Woolworths
  4. IGA
  5. Costco
The independent is my first port of call. They support local school events, sporting clubs and community functions. The food is of the highest quality, they employ a lot of staff which are easy to find and always helpful, the checkout is staffed by people not machines and a nice conversation is always had. They are always busy.

Coles is where my wife gets our hard groceries from, cans, cereals, and so on. I sometimes pull in when I'm in a hurry and the independent groceries car park is full, but the vegetables at Coles are not a scratch on the quality of my local, minimal Deli section, and the trying to find a staff member is a chore. Paying is worse, I'm lucky if there are 2 checkouts open on the days I go.

Woolworths is a bit better than Coles, in regard to fresh food quality, but they insist on doing away with jobs by having automated check outs.

The IGA is a family-owned business, I actually went to school with one of the sons, and they own a few stores across the state. The fruit and veg is fresh, the Deli section is very good, plenty of staff on the checkouts.

We also go to Costco every 6 to 8 weeks for bulk goods, they have more staff on hand than Coles and Woolworths.

Our independent grocer is the only one that supports the community in full, employ a large number of staff and give them a good working environment, you can tell by the smiles on their faces and willingness to have a conversation, the IGA is a close second. This does not happen at Coles and Woolworths.

Some people like the sterile feel of the big shops, and enjoy the loneliness of people free checkouts, I don't. I like to see people working in a happy environment, I don't mind paying a bit more to keep them in a job as long as I get good service.
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Exactly John De we have the same sort of set-up here. Coles and Woolies not a patch on the Indepenants. But the big two don't care otherwise we would have better service provided.
 
Smurf1976 said:
I'll pose a question..... :)

Suppose that I go to a supermarket, spend an hour taking goods off the shelf and placing them into a trolley, go through the checkout and then their system, or the bank's fails?

Now if I offer to pay cash well no problem, all sorted.

But if the supermarket doesn't want the cash then they don't think I'm walking out without the goods, right? Not when I've spent an hour of my time, they gave no warning that their system would fail, and I could instead have gone to a competing supermarket.

Just my view but if a business invites customers to purchase goods, and the customer has met all stated conditions of entry etc and has broken no law, there ought be an obligation to process the sale so long as the customer offers payment. If the shop's EFTPOS fails and they don't want the customer's cash, that's their problem.

Noting that's a hypothetical scenario but it's one I can foresee happening if businesses don't accept cash. Customer's been served food or they've travelled in the taxi or they've had their hair cut or whatever. If the EFFTPOS fails, and they don't take cash, well that's not the customer's problem. :2twocents
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Can't imagine there would be a freebe in this hypothetical theough.
 
JohnDe said:
I suppose you're right, once the EFTPOS facility goes down chances of using the credit card are dismal. Lucky we still use cash in the Australian economy.
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No wonder disagree with me, you seem have trouble understanding nuance in a discussion, and prefer to misrepresent other peoples arguments to make your self feel better rather than try and understand what they are actually saying.

I DID NOT say - Credit cards will NEVER an issue when the banking system goes down.

Rather the nuance of the discussion was about what the future might look like, I was simple suggesting some technologies that might be used to over come some of the short falls and weaknesses in the system, some which are already being used to some extent and some that could be used more I the future.

I also pointed out some of the benefits that cashless systems have over cash, and some of the weaknesses of cash.

—————————

But, I am kinda done with this discussion with you, not much point in wasting time discussing details if you aren’t Taki g the time to think about what I am actually saying.

It’s like explaining to some one the details of how a super charger network could be rolled out and then them saying something stupid like but chargers don’t exist every where, luckily we still have petrol.
 
Future may see some form of digital hard wallet. Cash will always be a necessity unless the government wants social upheaval imo.

Ability to earn income streams at all levels are what keeps people engaged. I've seen too many simulations where income loopholes are plugged and engagement drops by a huge %
 
moXJO said:
Future may see some form of digital hard wallet. Cash will always be a necessity unless the government wants social upheaval imo.

Ability to earn income streams at all levels are what keeps people engaged. I've seen too many simulations where income loopholes are plugged and engagement drops by a huge %
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I don't think cash will be banned, it will be like horses, just less and less people will use it, and eventually it will be a cost benefit thing.
 
mullokintyre said:
so how many angels do you think will be able to dance on a pin??
mick
Click to expand...
Is that question directed at me?

If so I am not sure what you me, because as I showed the technology involved in processing transaction offline already exists, is already being used, is very simple and just needs to be expanded. As I said at least 7 years ago my old eftpos machine was capable of processing transactions offline.
 
Well how about that.

Bought fuel at a BP servo this afternoon, paid by card, and it didn't work. Took 4 attempts before it finally worked but the man behind the counter was starting to look worried.

I was quietly hoping it wouldn't work at all just to see what happens next, with this thread in mind.

So not a failure but a near miss of sorts. These systems aren't bulletproof. :2twocents
 
Smurf1976 said:
Well how about that.

Bought fuel at a BP servo this afternoon, paid by card, and it didn't work. Took 4 attempts before it finally worked but the man behind the counter was starting to look worried.

I was quietly hoping it wouldn't work at all just to see what happens next, with this thread in mind.

So not a failure but a near miss of sorts. These systems aren't bulletproof. :2twocents
Click to expand...

I had the same issue Thursday night. Four of us went to the pub for dinner, my shout. Tapped the card and nothing happened, the bartender reset the EFTPOS and said that this “happens quite often with that bank”, again it didn’t work. After the fourth attempt I inserted the card & used my PIN.
Next round of beers & the same thing happened.
Used the card today an no problem.
 
Smurf1976 said:
Well how about that.

Bought fuel at a BP servo this afternoon, paid by card, and it didn't work. Took 4 attempts before it finally worked but the man behind the counter was starting to look worried.

I was quietly hoping it wouldn't work at all just to see what happens next, with this thread in mind.

So not a failure but a near miss of sorts. These systems aren't bulletproof. :2twocents
Click to expand...
I had a near miss the other day too, I went to the grocery store filled up the trolley, and was half way through check out when I noticed I had left my wallet at home. Luckily I can use my credit card via my phone, other wise I would have been screwed even if I had a $1000 in my wallet.

—————————
If you are worried that your card might fail or you might lose your card one day, make sure you have added your credit card to your phone, it works a treat.
 

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