What's the motivation for a store to not accept cash? Is it possible that cash has a > 3% "fee"(or whatever stores pay for cc processing) when you roll in cash registers, armored car services, employee handling time, theft, etc?
As the owner of a brick and mortar business (a bar), I can tell you that we do about 60% cash transactions. I just put in an ATM to try to up that number. I'm tired of paying close to 3% fees on cards.
We have had some cash theft from employees but to eliminate that would require 100% credit, which isn't an option for me. A big part of our clientele is service industry, and they're bringing in their cash tips and spending them.
(Makes total sense though that employees would be much more likely to do the stealing)
Cash is cheap. Losses were around 0.1% and costs were <1% when I did retail eons ago. Might be higher in risky environments due to insurance, worker’s compensation, etc.