Back then, I was working at a local pizza place. I'd worked there for 6 years, both in high school, as a delivery person, and eventually as the main cook/whatnot, in College.
We made as much as we could from scratch. Many pizza places order everything pre-made, pre-cut, including sauce and dough. We made our own dough, sauce, tonnes of home-made prep.
Anyhow, back in the day... we used this thing called "cash". It worked perfectly fine, too.
People would place orders, then show up and pay with .... cash!
People would place delivery orders, and pay with ... cash!
Out of 500+ orders a night, maybe... perhaps once a week, rarely twice a week, we'd have one customer not pick up their order. And... we'd eat it!
Problem solved.
There were no charge backs. No concept of someone showing ID?! To buy food?! No worries about losing 2-5% to the bank/cards. No online ordering.
No one had any issues with this, because this was how everyone did it. Everywhere. If there was a large order, people would pre-pay for some of it. I'm taking, 20 pizzas + chicken+spaghetti dinners or some such.
Per-paying for large orders upset no one, it was logical and sensible.
I get that today, as everyone has "bought in" to the idea of using credit cards, that people have little choice. One must compete with other restaurants, or lose money.
And even I, I strong advocate for cash, tends to carry less of it.
But I still wonder ; just who has won here, and who as lost?
Have the restaurants won? Well, no. They pay more, have to have additional hardware, have issues with chargebacks, and more.
And do customers benefit? Not really, for everyone is paying 3 to 5% more for food, just to cover charge costs and losses, and then many of the people paying?
Are sometimes paying 25%, or even double, once they get around to paying off their card a year later.
No one wins. Except the banks.