Remember when Chipotle got in trouble for rounding 24¢ and 26¢ to 25¢, to save time making change? [1] It was not unfair on average, and it surely sped things up, but they stopped because it's technically not correct.
1: https://www.delish.com/food/news/a37579/chipotle-caught-roun...
I can see if being considered unfair if it's a single business, but I do think that it's at least a little funny, considering we have penny rounding (to the nearest nickel) here in Canada since geting rid of the penny. Now it's by default, everywhere. And as someone that uses cash for all in-person purchases, it's actually really, really nice
In the example in the article: You will need to find a reverse ATM, which charges a fee, and wastes power itself (and requires the use of a card; this card may be reusable though, but if not then that is another waste), and the possible theft is not reduced (someone may steal money from the ATM) but may even be increased (someone steals it on the way, someone steals the card, someone manages to reprogram the ATM, etc) and has other problems (e.g. the ATM stops working or has no card available).
From the other comments here, it seem some places will charge more for cash and some charge less for cash.
Fortunately, from the article, it seem some states had banned cashless retail, but I don't know what is the laws in Canada relating to such a thing.
Which I thought was pretty amazing (the graph, that is): older Americans I can see hanging onto what they're used to, but 18-25 year-olds seem to be ticking upwards, which I think is actuallyy encouraging. Privacy implications aside, I appreciate Visa/MC being less an arbiter of what I may buy, as well as cash making it easier to save money and budget.
I can't help but wonder what the yoots rationale is though. I can't imagine they're the same as mine, considering how often I seem to fall outside the Overton window of "normal" - so why the uptick?