It happened in WalMart just now: I had to wait at self-checkout because I was paying with cash. It seems the machines were either not processing bills or dispensing change, so they could only take credit cards. This was happening in five or six kiosks out of the eight in use.
The strange thing about the event was that even the shoppers with an item valued at less than ten dollars used a credit card. We’re nickel and diming on debt.
It reminds me of my favorite go-to guilty pleasure show with a message: Garfield and Friends. An episode in Season Four called “Cash and Carry” (https://www.thetvdb.com/series/garfield-and-friends/episodes/226340) featured the world’s favorite lasagna chomping feline wrecking a wastebasket, which his hapless human Jon Arbuckle must replace at the wastebasket store in the mall. Of course, this was back in 1991 when malls and specialty shops (which carry only wastebaskets?) were still relevant. Since Jon was disturbed by his credit card debt and had cut up all his charge cards, he tried to buy the new wastebasket with cash. This leads to the clerk wondering what the green paper stuff is, and Jon is taken downtown by the cops and subjected to the typical interrogation scene, complete with overhead hot light and Dragnet inspired dialogue. He got the purchase, but had to promise not to try to pull such a stunt again (at least until the next time Garfield did his Ricky Ricardo impression on the wastebasket bongos).
Sweden is apparently going all plastic now, with cash hardly anywhere to be seen. How this is an improvement I can’t begin to figure. When you have cash, once your wallet is empty, it’s gone and your spending is over; with plastic you don’t see how much you’ve spent until the bill comes. That is how millions of people wind up declaring bankruptcy for money spent on food they ate and then flushed down the toilet 18 months ago.
I didn’t mind breaking out the ten dollar bill so much, but the dime really broke the bank. Change is a bothersome thing, unless you collect it and go to the coin counter for something in return. Still I believe cash matters. It’s keeps spending honest, it’s tangible, and when new it smells kind of nice blending with your leather wallet.
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