Serious question, does anyone else see more cash-only signs lately?

I was at a small hardware store in Tacoma last week and they had a new sign up saying they only take cash now. The owner told me their card fees went up again and it was eating into their thin profit. He said it costs him about $300 a month just to run cards. I'm starting to see this at a few other small shops too. Are other small business owners making this switch, or is this just a local thing?

3 comments

3 Comments

ellis.mia10d ago

That hardware store owner's $300 a month fee is the whole story. It's not just the swipe fee. It's the monthly statement fee, the PCI compliance fee, the fee for the actual machine. All of it adds up fast for a small shop.

king.wyatt10d ago

Man, my old lemonade stand would've been bankrupt from the "cup fee" alone lol.

emma_clark1d ago

Yeah, it's brutal... we got crushed by those hidden fees too. Ended up switching to a flat-rate processor that just charges per swipe, no monthly minimum. Saved us almost two hundred a month once all the junk fees were gone.