Handling cash is one of the reasons my husband left his Head Refund Cashier position at Costco. Standing at the register all day, taking back merchandise for refunds, and handing out thousands of dollars of cash is a dirty, dirty job. Covid-19 risks cinched the deal, and he quit.
I personally prefer using my credit union debit card for most transactions. It's MasterCard branded, and works like a credit card everywhere, except it only touches one account that has limited funds in it.. Gives me control, and I always have the right amount to pay for something. I'll use a credit card only as a backup. Carrying cash became extremely inconvenient, especially because I never seemed to have any change in my pocket, and I didn't want to have that loose change to deal with.
I found when I was saving loose change in a jar and rolling them to take to the bank, it was even more inconvenient in recent times. My credit union's local branch became an ATM-only location, and there was no way to deposit coins. Other banks wouldn't accept money from me as I didn't have an account there. Luckily, one guy at the Customer Service desk at Safeway said he'd take the coins, but to always ask for him. (Not sure why.) In my recent move to Nevada, I ended up bringing along a ziplock bag with about $30 in rolled coins in it, because I had nowhere to dispose of it. After I set up banking at a new bank here in Mesquite, I hope to find a place to turn in the coin rolls. So a coin shortage wouldn't be a major thing for me.
Canada went to a dollar coin several years ago, in lieu of printing one dollar bills. So even though they still have their usual selection of small change options, it adds more to it, because anything less than $5.00 in change is returned in coin form. They have $1 "Loonies" and $2 "Twonies" coins, plus the usual quarter, dime, nickel, and penny. It saves a lot of paper, but requires rethinking how money is handled.
Dave
