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I read somewhere (probably here on C-D) that a coffee shop was insisting that people only pay with apps, and it is more and more common to see businesses that just assume that everyone has a Smartphone.
I don't have a Smartphone and don't want to get one, so I am just asking for opinions as to how long you think that people in rural communities will continue to be able to get along without one. (I am retiring to a very rural community with a population of only 1,500, with the nearest city 60 miles away.)
I also do not have a smart phone, just an old flip phone. I have not encountered any difficulties as of yet. Good old cash works fine for me, and I use a couple of debit cards for gas or large purchases. Nobody has refused my money yet.
Just because something is possible, does not mean that everyone will want to use it. Perhaps in the big cities, or college towns where young people congregate, you will see more of that.
But you need to look at this another way - if the ppl who have the most money (older folks) don't want to use certain types of transactions, and only the younger ones (less money) do, then how can such a system prevail? You are putting the cart before the horse. Retail has to follow the market, not make the market. No one can do that, or they'd go broke.
I just retired to a place 10 miles from the nearest town of 232 residents. The nearest town of over 1500 is 40 miles away.
There isn't real good cell coverage, you see people parked on the side of the road all the time where they found a signal.
More to the point of your question, not every business here is set up to take credit cards. Cash is King, I had to get a checking account with actual checks for the first time in probably 15 years.
People here are either those that have lived here all their lives and don't trust tech, (haven't seen so many "dumb" flip phones in a long time), or those that moved here to get away from the tech.
Desktop computers are the norm, but lots of businesses are still paper based, computer bookkeeping is for the accountants.
From my experience, I wouldn't worry about what the millennials classify as culture to come here for several years to come.
It's lovely here. People still actually speak to each other, have conversations and real friends not just virtual ones.
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I have a smartphone, but my main phone is a flip phone. Slips in my pocket, nobody wants to mug me for it. If I drop it getting out of my truck it doesn't break falling 5 feet to the ground.
I'm waiting for the govt to outlaw the use of cash entirely.
I read somewhere (probably here on C-D) that a coffee shop was insisting that people only pay with apps, and it is more and more common to see businesses that just assume that everyone has a Smartphone.
I don't have a Smartphone and don't want to get one, so I am just asking for opinions as to how long you think that people in rural communities will continue to be able to get along without one. (I am retiring to a very rural community with a population of only 1,500, with the nearest city 60 miles away.)
You will find few places that only take plastic and you may assume that those few will change their policies when they notice that they lose business. This applies to both urban and rural settings. City and country are plugged into the same grid.
It works both ways: you won't see many checks anywhere either.
A comedian once joked that every senior discount should include rounding the purchase down to the next whole dollar so the other people in line don't have to stand there watching them count out their change.
A lot of states are passing laws requiring all businesses to accept cash. And for good reason, not accepting cash is discriminatory against poor people who are less likely to have bank accounts or smart phones.
As minimum wages are pushed up more businesses are going to try and eliminate the amount of time employees spend doing anything, like watching people count out exact change. Some of them have determined that the plastic transaction fees, chargebacks, etc, are cheaper to pay than paying somebody $15/hour to be a part of the transaction.
I have a smart phone for business mostly, but I pay cash for all my day to day expenses. If I run into a place that doesn't take cash, I just won't patronize them.
Data money - meaning it's all in bits and bytes data for ease of financial balancing has its drawback. Cyber crime can easily manipulate information.
While back in the day printing counterfeit money was the in thing....now it's how to move financial data in criminal ways.
It's a new generation with the same problem dressed in a different style.
I use paper money and get receipts. Business runs a risk be it paper or data theft. A robbery is still a crime.
With credit data the consumer can quickly refute a charge. Good luck with cash and no receipt.
I bought an item on vacation. Got home and it didn't work. Hard to drive 4 hrs back to get a refund or return it . Worse part was the so called manufacturer/distributor no longer exists...that item must have been on the shelf awhile.
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