Cashless businesses are becoming more prevalent across Australia, although regional small businesses are not as eager to follow the trend.
30 per cent of Australian businesses are located in regional areas, where many require the most cost-effective method for gathering payments.
As financial institutions persist in shutting down local branches, access to cash in regional areas has become a growing concern, with longer travel required for people to get cash out.
There has been push back to this trend, such as the “cash is king” movement in Western Australia.
One Western Australian pub, well ahead of the trend, went cashless fifteen years ago and has not looked back.
The King River Tavern, 11km north-east of Albany, has been run by Sam James for the past twenty years.
After a flood event devastated the pub, closing it for a short time, James took a good look at her books and found there was no profit from the restaurant arm of the business.
As the bar was predominantly taking cash at the time, the financial decision was made to close the kitchen and move the entire business to become cash only.
“We had big floods through the restaurant, so we closed it down and we had all these machines costing us a lot of money,” she said.
EFTPOS equipment was costing the business $300 per month, and while it cost hundreds more to return the machines, James has no regrets.
The pub had an ATM installed and signs were put up advising patrons of the change.
This decision was supported by the patrons, with the only complaints received by ‘out-of-towners’.
And the tavern experienced some unexpected benefits from the move, including being able to operate during blackouts.
“We’ve had some of our best nights here when the power is out … I can only sell drinks with cash,” James says.
Another benefit goes straight to the local community.
“Being a cash-only venue, a lot of people say, ‘Oh, keep the change, keep the change,’ and I say, ‘Well I’ll chuck it in the hospice tin.’”
In the past year, $9,000 was raised by donations of spare change.
“Cash works for my business … it’s easy for me because we don’t serve food,” Ms James reflected.
“A lot of people will say, ‘Oh, I wish I could do cash only’, but every business is different.”
According to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, businesses do not have to accept cash, but they should be clear about the types of payment they accept.
