Cashless or Cash Free Operations

[Daved Thomson]

I know Great Adventure, and I assume the entire Six Flags chain, has eliminated their cash control departments.  I know I've read many posts on here that assert that the logic behind moving to this "cash free" environment is that it makes everything more convenient, safer, and easier for park guests' transactions, by moving all transactions to either a cash card, credit card, or digital currency (such as Apple Pay/Google Wallet) and other methods of replacing cash with some digitized version of the good old paper/coin currency, specifically the U.S. dollar and coin portions of it.  I'm not calling out Six Flags as the only offender utilizing a cash-free means of conducting their revenue transactions because I am increasingly encountering other businesses doing the same thing.  I don't, however, believe they are doing so for the convenience and safety of their customers, but instead are doing it for their own convenience, safety, and increased likelihood that all of the cash put on such cards will not be spent at the business or that the customer will forget about the funds remaining on the card.  Then, after a noted period of time, the business can access any leftover funds on the card if not used within a certain period of time.

 

After reading the 2022 Six Flags annual report, I came across this paragraph, which seems to say that using something other than cash at the parks, is an option.

 

"We continue to offer guests the ability to obtain cash cards from kiosks throughout the parks to facilitate electronic transactions as an option in lieu of using cash, and implemented mobile food ordering at all of our domestic parks. These innovations added contactless means to enhance our guests’ experience through faster, more convenient transactions while elevating our enhanced safety guidelines."

 

It's neither an option, nor convenient to customers when a business requires everyone to convert their cash/coins to digital currency/cards.  It probably does make things safer for any location storing the cash (especially since their is no need for such a place), makes things a lot more convenient for the company by reducing overall labor costs, and simplifies everything for the accountants while creating a new revenue stream when customers don't utilize all the funds they've converted. 

[GAcoaster]

Having done retail in parks I can tell you going cashless just makes sense. No tills to have to worry about guests or employees stealing from, no having to count drawers when guests claim to have been short changed, no having to worry about cashiers who have no clue how to make change. The SeaWorld parks are converting to cashless as well and offering cash to card conversion kiosks.

 

Going cashless also means people don't really think about how much they're spending. That's part of the idea Disney had when they introduced Magic Bands. Tap your band and it's just "magic" so you don't think about how much you spent until the bills come. 

[29yrswithaGApass]

Cruise ships have been doing cashless for decades and is a standard for that industry. 

[BillyG]

On 6/10/2023 at 12:09 PM, 29yrswithaGApass said:

Cruise ships have been doing cashless for decades and is a standard for that industry. 

True, though I think they still do (or at least did) allow people to use cash to pay for things (that is, it didn't HAVE to be put on a credit card at the end of the cruise, you could pay cash at the office on the ship).  And the casinos also took money (in the machines or such).

 

I guess that is sort of similar to having a machine that takes money and gives you a card as the parks do, except that you have to know up front how much you will spend (where the ships allowed at least some spending to occur before requiring payment) - of course, they are also much harder to get out of without paying

 

 

[DanTheMan2000]

On 6/10/2023 at 6:19 AM, GAcoaster said:

Having done retail in parks I can tell you going cashless just makes sense. No tills to have to worry about guests or employees stealing from, no having to count drawers when guests claim to have been short changed, no having to worry about cashiers who have no clue how to make change. The SeaWorld parks are converting to cashless as well and offering cash to card conversion kiosks.

 

Going cashless also means people don't really think about how much they're spending. That's part of the idea Disney had when they introduced Magic Bands. Tap your band and it's just "magic" so you don't think about how much you spent until the bills come. 

While this is true, there's probably going to be some cybersecurity concerns with electronic payments by card (Any potential "bad seed" within corporate or any other place could grab ahold of the information). With that in mind, I have yet to see it play out in person.

[Yoshi]

On 6/10/2023 at 6:19 AM, GAcoaster said:

Having done retail in parks I can tell you going cashless just makes sense. No tills to have to worry about guests or employees stealing from, no having to count drawers when guests claim to have been short changed, no having to worry about cashiers who have no clue how to make change. The SeaWorld parks are converting to cashless as well and offering cash to card conversion kiosks.

 

 

That's a really great point about not having to count the money that I didn't think of. When I worked in retail, I hated having to count the money when someone said they were short changed or at the beginning or end of a shift with the cashier. It was rare for the money to be exactly even.

[GAcoaster]

10 hours ago, Yoshi said:

That's a really great point about not having to count the money that I didn't think of. When I worked in retail, I hated having to count the money when someone said they were short changed or at the beginning or end of a shift with the cashier. It was rare for the money to be exactly even.

When I was working as a Merchandise Lead at SeaWorld it would happen all the time, usually at the busiest time of day, and it's never fun to have to figure out if it was the guest or the cashier at fault.  

[The Master]

With cashless payment, companies, financial institutions, and even the government and law enforcement can collect more data and personal infomation about customers which is not an entirely good thing.

[pashacar]

On the labor side, the park spent so much on loss prevention alone, sending undercover employees out to check for theft by games and other staff. There are drawbacks to cashless but unless they legally can’t do it it makes total sense for them.