Going Cashless Under-the-Radar at Fast Casual
8-3-2016
The New York Times this week reported on a cashless revolution, taking place quietly, at eateries nation-wide. When Sweetgreen, a fresh-focused fast casual eatery, stopped accepting cash at some of its locations this past January something interesting happened – very few people noticed at all.
In the article, Sweetgreen co-founder and co-chief executive Jonathan Neman explained that over the restaurant’s nine years in business, they witnessed cash transactions decline from 40% to less than 10%. Part of the reason cited for consumers choosing to pay electronically is convenience – no cash means shorter lines and according to Neman, employees at the cashless locations have been able to accommodate between 5 and 15 more transactions per hour.
In addition to accepting cards, Sweetgreen has developed a payments app, which now accounts for 30% of the company’s transactions and allows for value-added interactions such as discounts and data feedback. Sweetgreen is also developing pre-paid or gift-card payments solutions to serve those whom may not have access to credit and debit cards or smartphones.
As the article notes, going cashless hasn’t been a total success for all fast casual restaurants, however, Sweetgreen, catering to its tech-savvy convenience-oriented diners, is expected to be a cashless success
Read the full article here.
About ETA
The Electronic Transactions Association (ETA) is the world’s leading advocacy and trade association for the payments industry. Our members span the breadth of significant payments and fintech companies, from the largest incumbent players to the emerging disruptors in the U.S. and in more than a dozen countries around the world. ETA members make commerce possible by processing approximately $56.75 trillion annually in purchases and P2P payments worldwide and deploying payments innovation to merchants and consumers.
ETAs membership spans the breadth of the payments industry to include independent sales organizations (ISOs), payments networks, financial institutions, transaction processors, mobile payments products and services, payments technologies, and software providers (ISV) and hardware suppliers. For more information, visit electran.org.