> “Cash handling costs include an armored car contract to transport cash and park rangers’ time counting money and processing paperwork,” the Park Service wrote in the news release. “The transition to cashless payments will allow the NPS to redirect the $40,000 previously spent processing cash to directly benefit park visitors.”
Strange but true:
While small businesses prefer cash, large businesses don't because there are many hidden costs to handling *large* amounts of cash regularly. Grocery stores know this, which is why they offer "cash back," so they can minimize the amount of cash they have to handle. Counting cash and contracting and armored vehicle are not free.
In the park situation, I wonder if it would be legal to charge differential pricing: instead of $10, they would charge $19 to cover cash handling costs (which means they would get $40,000 in revenues and break even). On the other hand, this might trigger another lawsuit because folks don't realize cash handling fees can be more expensive than credit card fees.