Coles makes it harder for customers to pay by cash as Australia rapidly moves towards becoming a cashless society

Coles faces backlash from customers about a new store where the self-checkouts don’t accept cash.

The recently opened Brisbane store has a row of self-service checkouts that all say ‘card only’.

A video of the cashless machines was posted on social media.

“Here we are at Coles, new Coles, no ATMs at all,” the narrator says.

This led to a call to boycott stores that do not accept cash.

‘Eeveryone only needs to use cash. If they don’t accept cash, don’t buy from them,” one said.

“Everyone should leave the groceries at the checkout and walk away,” said another.

A third noted that the supermarkets are cutting jobs.

“It’s bad enough that companies like Coles have raised their prices. I know they’ve cut their employees’ hours, but now there are more self-service checkouts… Fewer jobs.”

However, others thought the trend was inevitable.

‘There’s going to be cash, get used to it. Unfortunately, cash is mainly used by criminals and tax fraudsters. more and more companies are refusing to carry out cash transactions,” added another.

A spokesman for Coles said there were no cashless stores, even though the self-checkouts only accepted cards.

“There are still options for our customers who want to pay cash in all our stores,” they say.

In 2021, Woolworths was forced to halt a trial of cashless supermarkets, which was unpopular with a number of consumers.

The trial, which included fourteen ‘subway’ stores in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane, was marketed as a way to make shopping ‘seamlessly possible for busy inner-city shoppers’.

The abolition of cash has angered some customers, who say the supermarket should accept legal tender

However, it was met with strong resistance.

“I refuse to shop at any of your card-only places,” one customer wrote on Woolworths’ Facebook page.

“Cash is legal tender and I do not support the cash ban and take my money elsewhere.”

National Seniors Australia’s lead lawyer Ian Henschke called the lawsuit “a form of age discrimination” as many older customers still prefer cash.

Woolworths Metro managing director Justin Nolan admitted the process was ahead of its time.

“While nearly all Metro customers choose to pay by card, cash remains incredibly important to those who don’t, for a host of reasons that we didn’t fully appreciate,” he said.

“Based on our customers’ feedback, we can see that we have exceeded current community expectations for cash and we will end the trial.”

Australia is rapidly moving towards a cashless society.

The Reserve Bank estimated that by the end of 2022, only 13 percent of transactions were in cash, a halving in just three years since the start of the Covid pandemic.

A major advantage of using cash only is that there are no fees charged.

When a customer uses tap-and-go, the banks charge a fee ranging from 1.1% to 2 percent of the purchase price, while EFTPOS charges a maximum fee of .5%.

Australian bank branches are increasingly restricting cash withdrawals, with customers now advised to call ahead if they want a large amount from an ATM.

ANZ and Commonwealth Bank NAB have announced that they will no longer allow over-the-counter ATM withdrawals at some of their outlets, due to more online banking than cash.

Woolworths tried cashless supermarkets in 2021 but dropped the trial due to customer anger

Critics warned that the move to cashless banks could do significant harm to the elderly and disabled who still rely on branches and physical cash.

The number of bank branches in Australia has fallen by about 30 percent over the past five years.

And the number of ATMs has declined even further, with figures showing the number dropping from 14,000 in 2017 to around 6,000 last year.