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> This means for every $100 sale, a business is paying between $4.70 and $15.30 just to manage their cash.

I'm pretty skeptical of that number, but more importantly

> And, the cost is only increasing as more businesses and consumers trend away from cash.

That should be excluded here. We want to look at the baseline cost of cash as a major payment method, not the effects of a payment method becoming overly niche.

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> I'm pretty skeptical of that number.

The actual study is here.[1] "Depending on the segment and current processes, retailers can recoup upwards of 200-500 labor hours a month per store." It's related to ads for cash handling systems and armored car services.[2] It's not promoting card use.

[1] https://www.ihlservices.com/product/the-cost-of-cash-handlin...

[2] https://player.vimeo.com/video/441475326

Additionally with cash, people often just don't buy things. If they're running low of cash on-person, don't want to lose a certain type of bill (e.g. for the bus/tips), or simply don't want to carry coins.

That only makes sense if cash is the only form of payment a business accepts

True, but if they accept credit cards then customers will rarely pay with cash. We assumed here cash is a major transaction method, since otherwise their cash management costs are minimal.

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