As I have begun to see "we are a cash-free business" signs proliferate, I have begun to carry and use more cash.
Personally isn't much of an issue since the individual can choose where they shop, and if like myself they keep ten, twenty or fifty bucks on them, it'll get them out of a tricky situation where either there's no electronic means ... or it's broken down that hour, day ... which happens around my way and I strike the situation about every year - but it's hilarious though at times watching young staff trying the man the early carbon paper way to process cards and interacting with their company's guidelines for such situations.
At a regional level, it's god awful, boneheaded and as mentioned in previous comment, an authoritarian wet dream. Why? Just look up the last Optus outage in Australia, for some it wasn't even an entire day, and yet there was a hue and cry ... followed by a large amount of moaning how people who'd set up cashless had lost large ... following covid, people are more accommodating of such places that are cashless ... but it's in direct violation of the countries Currency Act, which one of the sub clauses mentions people shall not be herded into specified clubs (ie approved line of credit.) Maybe this has been changed in the last twenty years, but if so, it'd be a crock.
To clarify, the recent Optus outage took out hard lines as well as mobile, but for those who's business is mobile, they would have to rely on mobile data or old school processing for credit cards -- so as a BTW, just last year, in my region, Vodafone started service on their main (if not only) tower in my rural region (it services at least a 10 m or 16km radius) ... it took a month where it was not offering any workable level of service even at night. I myself had to purchase a sim to a different network. Total network losses happen during emergencies at times in our region in North Queensland ... the big storms can take out the overhead power lines at times and that can take a week or two to be repaired - and towers generally don't have power backups that last too long. So in regions that have the same issues, cashless would be a huge issue unless they found a different mechanism that avoids electronics and data transmission.