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Comment by galdosdi | Hacker News Reader

Actually you seem a little confused, let me clarify: It's true for debts already incurred, but not for transactions that haven't already happened. That's what legal tender means.

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.

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I don’t think that’s relevant, because the discussion was about paying for goods at Target, a department store.

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...

1. https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/legal_tender

No: "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."

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.

The solution is to preauthorize cards before seating and finalize them after. It cuts down on dine and dash also.

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.

The solution to what? There's literally no problem that needs solving here. It's easy to accept cards and also easy to accept cash. Neither is particularly expensive or hard to deal with.

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.

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