Ditched cash for a month at my food truck spot in Austin

I run a little taco cart near South Congress and last month I decided to go fully card and app payments only. It was a pain at first with the square reader glitching in the heat but by week three my line moved way faster and I only had one guy walk off. Has anyone else tried going cashless at a small outdoor vendor and seen a real difference in how people pay?

3 comments

3 Comments

wendy8201mo agoTop Commenter

Only one guy walked off" - that's basically a win in my book honestly. I tried going cashless at my hot dog cart last summer and had three people just stare at me like I'd asked them to learn ancient Greek when I said "cards only." Two of them actually pulled out actual coins and tried to convince me that change counted as "not cash." The heat killing the reader is real though, I lost a whole lunch rush because my Square just gave up and showed me a sad little sun icon. Your line moving faster makes sense, people aren't fumbling around for wrinkled dollar bills. Just wait until someone tries to pay you with a personal check, that's when the real fun starts.

logan6581mo agoMost Upvoted

Ha, I gotta call you out on one thing though. Change absolutely is still cash. It's just cash that's already been broken down into smaller pieces. That's like saying a slice of pizza isn't pizza because it's not the whole pie. But I feel your pain on the Square overheating thing. Mine used to do that during summer festivals and I'd just stand there fanning it with a napkin while customers stared at me like I was running a circus act. Personal checks would be a nightmare though, I'd probably just tell them I don't have a pen and hope they give up.

kimfisher1mo ago

That pizza analogy actually makes me realize how weird we are about categories in general @logan658.