A Tasmanian IGA store is offering customers a 5% discount if they pay for their groceries with cash.
Richmond IGA owner Kosta Tzortzis says the discount is designed to encourage locals to keep using cash and to help elderly customers and those who don’t use bank cards.
“When you take into account all the bank fees and the transaction fees, small businesses don’t get to see much of the cash,” Tzortzis said.
“You pay $50 by card by the time you do 10, 15 transactions there’s not much of it left with all the fees and surcharges. Whereas cash is cash and 10, 15 transactions later it is still $50,” he told Yahoo.
Before the discount was introduced nearly two years ago, Tzortzis said around 80% of customers were paying by card and 20% by cash.
The discount has shifted those numbers slightly to around 70% card and 30% cash.
“People are still coming in and paying with their phone or their watch. It’s scary the way things are going,” he said.
Many Tasmanians have praised the store for offering the discount, saying they wished their local IGA would do the same.
According to the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA), cash payments accounted for 13% of consumer payments in 2022.
