While the battle over cashless payments is still heating up in the U.S., with companies like Sweetgreen and Amazon backpedaling from the model, other parts of the world tell a different story. Case in point: mega pizza chain Domino’s is testing cashless payments in Australia with a new program called “Tap & Take.”
With the program, Domino’s customers ordering both takeout and delivery will only be able to use their card or contactless payments like Apple Pay to purchase their pie. Domino’s is testing this program out in five locations around Australia, with plans for further expansion down the line.
The company cited reduced wait times in lines and employee safety as key reasons for kickstarting such a program. The safety issue in particular is one of the biggest arguments in favor of cashless business models. After all, you can’t successfully rob a store that doesn’t keep cash on the premises.
To be sure, certain parts of the world are moving closer to a cashless business model. In Canada, the value of cash payment transactions has decreased by 21 percent since 2012, according to recent reports. China steadily marches towards becoming a cashless society, with a heavy focus on mobile payments and technology over bank notes and even debit cards. And there’s Sweden, where according to a recent survey only 13 percent of the country uses cash to pay for transactions.
Elsewhere, though, and especially in the U.S., the cashless business model has received so much backlash it’s been banned in whole cities and forced Amazon to overhaul its entire Amazon Go store concept. The main beef against the cashless model is that it discriminates against underbanked and unbanked populations, who don’t always have a bank account and who rely on cash to make day-to-day purchases. There are also people in the world who still simply prefer to pay for goods in cash as a matter of principle.
A Domino’s spokesperson acknowledged as much when speaking to the New Zealand Herald this week, saying “We’ve certainly considered that some people prefer to use cash, which is why we are running this on a trial basis and welcome feedback from customers, especially regarding how seamless and convenient they find this makes their Domino’s experience.”
Domino’s, anyway, dabbles in everything from chatbots to driverless pizza delivery to location-based technology to deliver pizzas faster and more efficiently. It’s not so surprising the company would pursue a tech-driven payment model as another means of accomplishing the same goal. Doubtful the “Tap & Take” program will reach the U.S. anytime soon, but it’s entirely plausible someplace like Sweden or Canada could be next on the pizza-turned-tech-company’s list, should the trial program in Australia prove successful.
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