These days, paying for things with cash feels like playing one big game of Monopoly. Many of us have become so accustomed to cards and contactless that we simply don’t carry physical, real life money anymore.
But you happen find a miracle £20 note in your coat pocket, there are increasingly fewer places you can actually use it. In an effort to reduce queue times, more and more supermarkets are making the decision to go completely cashless.
There have been concerns over those decisions, though. Martin Quinn from the Campaign for Cash warned that it could alienate elderly customers or retirees who prefer in person interactions to paying through a computer screen. He said: ‘People will rightly vote with their wallets and take their custom elsewhere. It’s an utterly soulless experience.’
Here’s all the latest on which supermarkets are moving towards card-only and which are still accepting the real deal.
Tesco
Tesco announced that it would be going cash-free across 40 of its cafe sites, where customers order through a digital screen.
Asda
Customers at nearly 14 Asda petrol stations already have no choice but to pay by card when they fill up. Now, 68 more are set to join them. Asda says that it made the decision as more than 90 percent of payments made at its petrol kiosks were already via card or contactless.
Co-op
Cash can be used at all of Co-op’s manned checkouts. Only some self-service tills are card-only.
Morrisons
While some stores do have card-only self-service counters, Morrisons still accepts cash at all of its manned tills, cafés and petrol stations.
Sainsbury’s
The vast majority of Sainsbury’s outlets still accept cash, although the company hasn’t revealed the exact number.
Aldi
All Aldi stores accept cash across both manned and self-service tills.
Waitrose
Waitrose accepts cash at its manned tills but is card only at the self-service checkout across all 300 of its UK sites.
Checkout more supermarket news
Groceries are an unavoidable part of adult life, so you might as well stay up to date on all the latest from Britain’s staple supermarkets. This supermarket was recently voted the UK’s fave, one recently went against the grain and ditched self-service tills altogether and an underrated store was voted Britain’s best for wine. There’s also 100 more Little Waitrose, 200 new Lidl branches and 500 new Aldi stores opening in the near future. Plus, are unstaffed supermarkets bad for London’s soul?
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