Target to stop accepting personal checks as form of payment
nbcchicago.com
nbcchicago.com
I never pay with check and can't remember the last time I was delayed or even saw someone else pay with check, but this is a harbinger: once they take away cash as a form of payment, the only thing left will be non-anonymized.
You get 5% off everything when you use it. The ACH transfer is typically the next banking day.
There are a handful of US states and municipalities which mandate cash acceptance, but you should definitely check the laws where you live before trying anything like that.
So this would apply to for example, a postpaid sit-down restaurant meal -- when the bill comes, you offer cash and if it's turned down your debt is settled. That's the law.
There is generally no requirement to agree to accept cash prior to making the transaction though, as at a counter service place where you pay as you get the food. They would be in their rights to refuse to hand over the food and ask you to leave.
And that's why you see a lot of cash free counter places now, but not sit down postpaid. It would be impractical to refuse to take cash once the food has already been eaten.
Hope this helps.
Even so, there’s a good chance your opinion is incorrect; some legal experts state that if a sit-down restaurant posts signs stating they don’t accept cash, it can be viewed as a contact[0]. Cornell Law asserts the following (note the past tense!): “Federal statutes do not require a seller to accept cash as a form of legal tender for payment of goods or services that were rendered.”[1] Most likely, the waiter would get a manager, and they’d take the cash, but why go through all that trouble when you can just eat at a regular restaurant that does accept cash?
0. https://charlestonbusiness.com/legal-perspective-are-busines...
This is exactly the same situation as at Target: you bring a bunch of goods to the cash register. You offer a check. The cashier is going to say "sorry we don't take checks anymore: do you have another way to pay [a Target card, a debit card, a credit card, cash...]. Either you present the alternative method of payment or leave without the goods.
I think that's more or less how Alamo Drafthouse does it: they run your card when you place your initial order, and bring out the final bill at the end to write in a tip. At least, I don't think I've ever noticed someone try to use cash there.
If you really want to accept just one and not the other, that's fine, too. If you occasionally get a confused customer who accidentally consumes your services and then only has cash to pay, that's not a big deal of course.
And the reverse is also no big deal -- if you don't accept cards, and the customer don't have cash, you just point them at the nearest ATM (often in the same store, since this is a common way to avoid credit card merchant fees)
Either way is just not that big a deal.
The other (inconvenient) way I could pay is by exchanging cash for a "money order" at a post office or a retail location known as a "check-cashing store", then giving the money order to the landlord. Giving cash directly to the landlord was (and remains) not an option.
To speculate, I'recon the top two reasons would be: dedicated bank account for home expenses; purchaser doesn't have the money today, but expects to have it deposited before the cheque clears "in a few days".
The check gets scanned, ID collected, and it's reported to a third party financial institution that basically evaluates the customer's creditworthiness and issues credit to the store to cover the check. (If the check were to bounce, it would be their problem to deal with.)
This also means checks can be instantly denied by that third party, if their system is not confident enough that the collection will be trouble free. Which is...not uncommon for the sort of people who want to write a check to buy an appliance, rather than using a credit card. Which then involves belligerence when it's denied.
Oftentimes not even then, if I bring my own bag and the scanner demands an employee come over after every item because the scale is off by a couple of grams. Completely awful experience if there's more than one alcoholic drink as well.
But stores that go overboard on this (like Walmart) are incentivizing us to actually spend less and definitely not fill a cart. An employee staring at us like we're robbing the store doesn't help either when we're trying to do things properly. I always feel like a SWAT team is standing by in case I put something on the wrong side, and the stores are happy that I feel that way because perhaps then I'm less likely to steal, but really I'm more likely to click "Buy Now" on a website.
Best Buy is an example of a store that has processes that are mostly welcoming, even with relatively high-value and easily shoplifted items, and they don't have or need self-checkouts. Perhaps that's because their margins are higher or because they have such a short distance between their segregated checkout areas and the anti-theft associate standing by the door.
I noticed it once when I paid for pharmacy items at Walmart and later put that bag into the bagging area when I bought grocery items. It flagged it as an unscanned item and notified the attending associate.
All in all, it's a superior experience to waiting in regular lines or having to talk to people. Ultimately, I want to just scan and pay with my phone without the kiosk bottleneck.
Targets in my area don't suffer from this, but I know of one grocery store location that seems to have a single cashier, even on the busy weekends. This was true before self-checkout. I used to avoid this location at all costs, but with self-checkout it is somewhat bearable to pick up a few items. There isn't even someone at the self-checkout station to help you out if needed.
At a poorly owned and and managed grocery store, that is chronically understaffed, as someone giving them money, you'd rather temporarily become an unpaid employee and waste your time looking up the product codes for apples and onions, using a system that's purposefully less efficient than what the real cashiers use, instead of just going to a store that doesn't make you work for them to pay them money.
In places where it's as bad as you've described there's often a line and wait for self check out. I've just abandoned my shopping and went somewhere else if I have over a handful of items
(jk and they probably still accept faxes too…)
The alternative is regular mail.