02/15/2023
We’re moving into a world that’s becoming increasingly paperless, and that doesn’t just mean office documents and newspapers — cash is also a casualty of the digital age, and you’ll find that far less people carry cash in their pockets than they did ten or twenty or thirty years ago. Unbelievably, some stores have even dropped cash altogether — did you know, for example, that Amazon retail locations don’t accept any physical currency?
Because of this, it would make sense for ATM machine growth to be slowed down, but ATMs are selling just as much as they ever have, with no real indication of slowing down. While there’s not a concrete answer as to why ATMs haven’t been heavily affected by the digital age, the answer could paradoxically be that more people want to have cash on hand the rarer it becomes.
Because online payment systems have become ubiquitous, it’s sort of a shock to people when you can’t use your credit card, PayPal, or smartphone to pay. If a certain transaction is cash only, it’s frustrating when you don’t have any on-hand.
And, of course, there are still plenty of reasons to have cash. The digital age has, in certain ways, blown up certain venues of cash transactions. Craigslist, for example, is used by millions of people all over the country to informally exchange goods. Cash is the go-to payment method for these transactions, and they wouldn’t be happening if it weren’t for the worldwide web which connects us all.
In other words, if you’re on the fence about picking up an ATM machine for your business because you’re concerned that they’ll go out of style, cast those worries aside! ATM machines will be around for a long while