If you like to travel, you can essentially travel "for free" by simply doing these two things:
1. Put all of your purchases on the travel rewards card
2. Pay it off in full every month, no exceptions
1. Put all of your purchases on the travel rewards card
2. Pay it off in full every month, no exceptions
For people running a little mom-and-pop business, delivery costs could add up, but they are likely to be in a more-time-than-money situation, and make bank runs on the way to or from the business.
There's also a lot less liability, because counterfeit money is easy to detect, and there aren't any fees or losses from stolen cards or chargebacks.
Having been the manager at a place that handled a lot of cash, I spent several hours every shift counting all those tills. The clerks might only need a few minutes for their part, but then the till goes to a backroom where the manager counts it again. Then all that cash is combined into piles and counted again.
Bill counting machines start at less than $100, and they make it super quick, so accuracy and handling time isn't really a problem any more.
Most retail theft is of inventory, not cash, and chargebacks will easily surpass lost cash anyway.
Although you can find cards that give you 1.5-2% back that you can use on travel or anything, as you please.