Visa Offers Restaurants $10k To Stop Accepting Cash
Credit and debit cards can be very useful things, but most people still use cash for some things. Visa is looking to change that, and it just announced that it would be offering to pay restaurants $10,000 to switch to an entirely cashless business model.
All together, Visa is looking to give away $500,000 to different restaurants for going cashless. According to the press release for the Visa Cashless Challenge, Visa is working to "create a culture where cash is no longer king" by offering $10,000 to 50 food-related small businesses, like restaurants, coffee shops, or food trucks.
To get the $10,000, a restaurant must commit to going 100-percent cashless, which means it could accept credit or debit cards or digital payments with people's phones, watches, or other wearable technology, but no cash at all.
"Visa will be awarding up to $500,000 to 50 eligible US-based small business food service owners who commit to joining the 100% cashless quest," the company said.
Credit card companies get paid by the business whenever a customer uses a credit card, so of course it's in Visa's best interest to get people to use cash as little as possible.
Some companies have already switched to cash-free business models. The Sweetgreen fast-casual chain committed to going cashless in 2017 after testing the program out for a year. The company said going cashless reduced the risk of robbery and also saved them the expense of having to transfer large amounts of cash in armored cars. Managers who used to have to count money to make sure the right amount was in the cash register could use that time for other tasks, too. The company also said getting rid of cash could help hygiene, as employees wouldn't have to handle money and then touch food.