Cashless Society
Cashless spending on April 23rd 2020 (the peak during the pandemic)
Match the percentage to the type of spending:
charities/education - beauty/personal care - food/drink - leisure/entertainment - retail
Sweden is on course to become the world’s first cashless country. Swedish economists expect many businesses to not accept cash in 2023.
Q: Do you think this will happen in Japan anytime soon? Can stores not accept cash from customers?
Sweden is unique because if they place a sign on their store that says: “Cash not accepted” and the customer enters, the customer has to agree to that contract.
Benefits of a cashless society:
Fewer robberies
Less Tax Evasion / Bribes
Don’t need to exchange money when travelling abroad
Companies are able to track consumer spending and trends
Fewer germs / viruses spread
Wallets are less heavy
Transaction speeds can be faster (reduces waiting times at cashiers)
Governments can collect economic data more efficiently
Downsides of a cashless society
Less profit for small businesses - due to transaction costs
Not everyone has access to cashless payments
Lose privacy - businesses can track all of your purchases
Risk of data breaches or hacking
Problems in emergencies - blackouts, phone out of batteries
For some people it’s harder to track your spending
It’s harder to teach kids the value of money
Mercedes Benz Stadium (Atlanta, US)
First stadium to go cashless
In March 2019 Mercedes Benz Stadium was the first sports stadium to go completely cashless.
Fans with only cash need to use special machines to put money on a debit card to use during the day
Q: Why did it do this?
reduce waiting times for customers
reduce costs of the stadium
Q: Did fans complain? Do you think it was successful?
In the first year:
There were very few complaints
Waiting times generally decreased
The stadium saved $350,000
spending per customer increased by 16.2%
only 1.2% of fans used the pre-paid debit cards
Some Music Festivals have started becoming cashless. You pay with your smartphone or load cash onto your festival wristband.
Q: What are the benefits of this for attendees?
don't need to worry about losing your wallet - it gets stolen easily at a crowded festival
don’t need to bring your wallet - it’s heavy and has lots of my personal information / credit cards
lines are shorter
Q: What are the downsides of this for attendees?
people may try to steal your wrist band
people have to wait in long lines to charge money onto the wristbands
people are bad at predicting how much cash they need - may need to recharge
if money is left over, you need to wait in long lines after the festival to get your money back
Result: attendees ended up spending 16% more than in the previous year