In message , at 15:52:29 on Sun, 22 Jan
2012, Stephen Sprunk remarked:
There's also the time it takes to count the customer's money and, if
applicable, make change. This is particularly bad in the US since taxes
are not included in the price, so the total due is rarely known before
the order is rung up.

And especially in a "Dollar" store where everything actually costs $1.08
(or whatever). Although when I was in Walmart in the summer they had
several items in "special offer" bins in the aisles that were clearly
priced to be an exact number of dollars after tax.

[Do "Dollar" stores typically accept cards?]

Processing a card payment is faster, especially
if it's below the merchant's floor, meaning merchants can handle more
transactions with less labor.

Finally, there is a non-trivial cost to securely storing and
transporting cash to the bank for deposit and to keeping enough coins
and smaller notes on hand to make change.

Those are the elements which make up the "1%" (rather than "0%") quoted
as the typical cost of accepting cash, versus the "2%" for cards.
--
Roland Perry