I’ve recently moved to an area where it is common for the small businesses not to take a card, I’m sure for this reason. I’m from a larger city where I hadn’t experienced this, so I was surprised to walk into several stores, and have to walk right back out, because I don’t have cash on me. While I understand the reasoning explained here, the business has to understand that NOT taking a card is a business risk they have to weigh. In this day’s society, most people don’t carry cash. Small businesses are closing left and right, because they didn’t plan properly for the costs of business. I expect the lights to be on when I walk in the door; do I have to pay a portion of their electricity bill too?
My husband and I simply won’t patron these places, because we don’t carry cash. I have a credit card, and pay it off at the end of each month. It is simply more convenient (and safer, as a very unlucky someone who has had her wallet stolen THREE different times) to carry plastic. [Side note: even if I didn't use the card responsibly, the credit card companies are another business, they make their profit off of people who don't have money, and want to borrow some, similar to a car rental, and if the person who uses the card, with the knowledge of their interest rate, that is their right and their concern what they do with their money, not mine.] Unfortunately, this is just part of the cost of doing business, the small purchases with the large. But as a business, that is certainly within rights to not accept a charge card. It’s just our right to go somewhere else that makes the experience convenient for the CUSTOMER, instead of the business.
As for advice for small businesses to set themselves apart, I’ll relate a short story. There is a small deli, family-owned, right across from my former workplace. Their food was good, but nothing special. Their prices were good, but I certainly could have gotten larger portions and possibly tastier food elsewhere? So why did I keep coming back? They offered something that no Subway does — when I came in, they greeted me by name, knew what I liked and suggested things, asked about my life. In the depths of the worst of the bad economy, they opened a second location across the street, because they had too much business. It’s not the economy closing the small businesses. A small business is rarely going to be able to compete in prices or convenience. So what else is there to do? Offer something I couldn’t get elsewhere–an experience.
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