In the end, this will hurt the servers/ waitstaff because the 3% might end up being part of their tip, especially given the lousy explanation. If you usually tip 20% and then tip 17%, the server will lose in the end, so it's in the best interest of the server for the owner of the establishment to raise prices to cover the rising costs of doing business and giving benefits.
A recent law in CO allows businesses to charge for the use of credit cards. You would be surprised how many people will pay cash or write a check, but taking checks has risk. Our son's fireplace store just south of Denver does take credit cards and does charge a fee, but at least 75% write checks rather than to pay 3%.
We will soon have people here on TUG saying the 3% is okay to charge and to just pay it. We will see.
I've never run a business, but given how much the larger chains and other places are moving to card only, I have to imagine there's hidden costs in taking cash or especially checks that a lot of these "charge a fee for credit card use" aren't capturing.
First guess is the labor cost taking cash. You basically need either way more complicated machines with way more places to go wrong, or you need more employees manning a cash register. You might be more attractive to stupid robbers (grabbing a large cash haul is probably easier than ... doing something with a probably empty electronic card reader). You're putting off people who don't carry cash (this is a lot of people, I used to be one), and recently it's not just do you have a $20 for emergencies, it's did you carry $200 or more if we're talking about a day out (which is also a risk for tourists getting mugged etc). I.e. you're losing potential customers. You're also putting off people who might just see if they can get X online cheaper, *and* get their CC benefits there.
I agree, I pretty much see these things at the smaller businesses, and I bet these are the same people complaining when tourists go to the chain places that have a standard experience and tend not to have hidden fees.
My biggest complaint however - echoed by others here, is the rising tip percentage expectations... Percentages go up inflation of base costs FFS. We were fine at 10% when I was a kid, now they're pushing 25%. I'm more and more tempted to just not put in tips at all, or go back to 10% because it's scaled anyway. And these are places I don't go back to, I'm in town once...
Though these fees are probably my second complaint, getting ready to top tips... Tell me how much it costs, don't lure me in with fake prices. I want to pay what's in the ad! I as a customer shouldn't really care *why* your price is what it is, I should care if it works for me. And if I'm sitting there thinking I ordered $50 worth of lunch, and now you want to add 25% tip, 3% credit card fee, 8% I need money fee etc... this is darn near false advertising IMHO. Heck, I wish we had the laws like in Europe where the *sales tax* is included in the on the shelf price. It really doesn't matter to me if you find the tax makes you uncompetitive - everyone else on the block is paying the same tax. You're just trying to blame someone else for your inability to make the experience or whatever at a value to the customer they are willing to pay so you're trying to trick them with falsely cheap prices and then after the fact pressure them into paying more - potentially A LOT more if we start accepting "inflation fees" etc.
