For many U.S. cities and counties, the high number of walk-in payments and checks typically received for services, permits and fees has been aggravating but acceptable — until coronavirus struck.
Dodger Stadium looks odd now — filled with fake crowd noise and cardboard cutout spectators — but in this downtime it's putting in an almost entirely invisible 5G wireless connection and new point of sale system.
Various efforts to limit cash were in motion well before the global health crisis, but merchant and consumer digital money habits being built during the pandemic will carry on for many years, thus leaving cash sidelined in many purchasing scenarios.
The coronavirus pandemic has cast a shadow over the use of cash, which is often perceived as dirty because it frequently changes hands and is almost never washed.
The ATM industry was already mired in the painful transition away from hardware to digital technology, and now it must try to persuade consumers and merchants that cash isn’t unsafe to handle.
The coronavirus pandemic has changed the way many industries conduct business — and that's especially true of the legal cannabis industry, which was already struggling in the U.S. to find the best way to handle noncash payments.
The coronavirus pandemic has made paper money literally a dirty word, causing a rush to digital payments that may be too fast for Western Union and MoneyGram to keep up with as separate companies.
Visa pulled its financial outlook for the rest of the year, but it already has visibility into permanent changes that result from the coronavirus — such as an aversion to handling cash.
Businesses have turned to workarounds to accommodate the coronavirus’ impact on brick-and-mortar stores, emergency measures that will likely become permanent in order for these businesses to survive into the future.
Cash use will suffer because of this outbreak, and there are factors other than germs contributing to this trend. A growing work-from-home workforce will funnel more shoppers into digital channels, including ones they may have never tried before.