Patrizia Flammini runs a cafe in the centre of Rome. According to the Financial Times, her heart sinks when a customer pays for a coffee with a payment card (as I always do when I buy coffee, everywhere, all the time). Why? She says that the cost of accepting cards is so high that the bank earns more on a cup of coffee than she does.
When I saw this, I naturally thought to myself “so what?” and “if she doesn’t like cards, she shouldn’t take them” because as far as I am concerned, retailers should be able to take whatever they want in payments. If they want to take cash or cowrie shells, cards or chocolate (cocoa was a currency in South America for hundreds of years) then it should be up to them.
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