The Australasian war on cash

Ramps up

First this is a little diarising that I did back on the 4th January in Melbourne.

Woolworths at corner of Lonsdale? and Queen? (ed. it is Queen but not Lonsdale) is trying its best to discourage cash customers. Out of about 14 automatic machines only one is dedicated to cash and it has a sign on it saying that it's not working. So you have to line up for tellers who have queues despite half the machines being empty. The guy before me was an angry bastard with a 7yo daughter in tow who was getting some flak from him. He paid cash but there were others there paying by card. One other woman paid cash and she only had $70 so there was a minute or two delay while she decided which groceries to dump.

When I finally got to the teller I told her that as Woolworths was doing its best to discourage cash customers that this was fine but I was never going to buy at any Woolworths ever again. She told me to complain to the State Manager as the local stores had no say in the policy. She was fine, friendly. I did not raise my voice or insult anyone other than mentioning that it sounded like the WEF was involved (ed. diarised as such to avoid bogus claims later). I think the staff despise the policy as well. And I doubt the State Manager has any control either right Klaus?

CARD ONLY! (not the Supermarket mentioned but the machines are the same)

Talking to some friends back here in Dunedin one mentioned that the ANZ bank was no longer allowing businesses to bank at the tellers and they had to put their money into the ATM’s designated for business cash instead. Anybody who has used one of these would realize that you make sure you know exactly how much cash you have before you put it into these cash munchers. And sure enough halfway through a 2k deposit in early January the machine ground to a halt, did not provide a receipt and Russ is still waiting to hear back from the bank about this (and no the money has not been credited). But the machines apparently arn’t even from the ANZ they’re instead a security company’s machines (and yes typically they’re manufactured by the same companies that count your votes).

Peter added that the rumour mill indicated that yes there will be more attrition of businesses at a poorly serviced hospitality sector in Queenstown and that the Banks were not lending to small business right now.

At Countdown in South Dunedin the “card only” fanatacism has spread to even the human tellers and just as in Melbourne the staff are not keen on it and the local managers have no say on the policy.

Meanwhile;

War!