Step 1.) Add ATM in lobby.
Step 2.) Tell customers they can’t use cards because of laws.
Step 3.) Customer uses debit card at ATM and then purchases weed with the cash they just used their debit card to get.
Yes, but the problem is that the volume of cash makes retailers a massive target. People have been killed over this, and will continue to be put in danger until customers have access to the same payment resources that all other retail businesses take for granted. This is not a trivial issue at all. There are serious real world consequences to these decisions that paint the industry in a bad light when they are a DIRECT consequence of the inaction of the federal government. We are never going back to prohibition. There is simply too much tax revenue generated, and too much public sentiment on the side of both legalization as well as ending the failed drug war policies.
Not just a massive target to criminals either. Cops are willing to pull over armored cars and take the cash when it gets transported. That money then goes through the civil asset forfeiture process, getting handed to the feds who then give some of it back to the local department through their “equitable sharing” program. Legalized theft.
Banks are kind of shitty here - if you use another bank’s ATM, your bank (or the other, or sometimes both) will charge a small fee. Usually it’s something like $3, but some smaller banks and credit unions will actually pay all of those fees back, so a lot of folks don’t even notice that it’s there.
This specific situation is weird because it’s a dispensary, though. Thanks to the vagaries of local legality and federal illegality, the dispensaries are totally good selling drugs, but the banks are very much not good openly handling the payments for those drugs. Because of this, most dispensaries will contract their debit payments through a payment processor that can register their card readers as “cashless ATMs,” and who will effectively launder all of their debit transactions. The end result of this is that while the customer can pay with a card like a normal store, they end up having to choose between paying the ATM fee at the ATM, or at the register.
The situation makes sense from the pov of the banks. They get to charge you more and get that money instantly for the same transaction.
How it should be: most customers use cash, sometimes they use a card and the dispensary sends a small amount of money (at the end of the month) to the bank for being involved in the process.
How it is: everyone uses an ATM as individuals and get charged a huge non-negotiable fee for that and the banks make money the moment you withdrawal any.
Always look at who gains from a situation to understand the situation.
It got a lot worse in 2008. The federal government shutdown about a third of the banks for not being big enough and with the drop in market competition they started slapping fees on everything.
ATM fees in the US have been a thing since ATMs have been a thing. It’s not new and didn’t start in the great recession.
And what do you mean by the government shutting down banks? Banks were killing themselves by doing dirty financial tricks and approving garbage loans and playing hot potato amongst each other with them.
Stress tests. Go read up on it. About 1/3 of banks, almost all midtier, were shutdown by the US government after the crisis has passed. Leaving places like Goldman (which caused the problem to begin with) with less competition. There are less baking companies in the US now then in 2007.
This is discriminatory and it shouldn’t even need to exist, I mean, heck, you can literally buy legal weed over the internet now and get it delivered to your door, you can purchase seeds too because in 2018 selling hemp was decriminalized federally
Step 1.) Add ATM in lobby. Step 2.) Tell customers they can’t use cards because of laws. Step 3.) Customer uses debit card at ATM and then purchases weed with the cash they just used their debit card to get.
Fuck it. Not hard at all.
Yes, but the problem is that the volume of cash makes retailers a massive target. People have been killed over this, and will continue to be put in danger until customers have access to the same payment resources that all other retail businesses take for granted. This is not a trivial issue at all. There are serious real world consequences to these decisions that paint the industry in a bad light when they are a DIRECT consequence of the inaction of the federal government. We are never going back to prohibition. There is simply too much tax revenue generated, and too much public sentiment on the side of both legalization as well as ending the failed drug war policies.
I’ve been to dispensaries with armed security. They’re just as friendly inside as other dispensaries, but wow is that intimidating.
Not just a massive target to criminals either. Cops are willing to pull over armored cars and take the cash when it gets transported. That money then goes through the civil asset forfeiture process, getting handed to the feds who then give some of it back to the local department through their “equitable sharing” program. Legalized theft.
That sounds really bad but has it actually happened to a legal pot retailer?
Yes, over 1 million dollars in total with just this one transport company for example: https://ij.org/case/empyreal-forfeiture/
Thanks That was totally fucked up. However they got good lawyers and reversed the forfeiture.
Cash is way more dangerous to hold, these stores get robbed all the time. Just let them process cards
Buy/build your shop like one of those “Check Cashing” places with the impossibly thick glass windows. Keep the cash behind said window.
And the transaction fee goes right to the bank.
You get charged for a cash withdrawal? That’s rare here in the UK.
Charged by the ATM and sometimes also charged by your bank for using an ATM
It’s a scam
“This is America.”
Most do. I use a bank that reimburses the costs.
America’s national motto is “Yup, there’s a fee for that!”
Banks are kind of shitty here - if you use another bank’s ATM, your bank (or the other, or sometimes both) will charge a small fee. Usually it’s something like $3, but some smaller banks and credit unions will actually pay all of those fees back, so a lot of folks don’t even notice that it’s there.
This specific situation is weird because it’s a dispensary, though. Thanks to the vagaries of local legality and federal illegality, the dispensaries are totally good selling drugs, but the banks are very much not good openly handling the payments for those drugs. Because of this, most dispensaries will contract their debit payments through a payment processor that can register their card readers as “cashless ATMs,” and who will effectively launder all of their debit transactions. The end result of this is that while the customer can pay with a card like a normal store, they end up having to choose between paying the ATM fee at the ATM, or at the register.
The situation makes sense from the pov of the banks. They get to charge you more and get that money instantly for the same transaction.
How it should be: most customers use cash, sometimes they use a card and the dispensary sends a small amount of money (at the end of the month) to the bank for being involved in the process.
How it is: everyone uses an ATM as individuals and get charged a huge non-negotiable fee for that and the banks make money the moment you withdrawal any.
Always look at who gains from a situation to understand the situation.
It got a lot worse in 2008. The federal government shutdown about a third of the banks for not being big enough and with the drop in market competition they started slapping fees on everything.
Never forget what the economists took from us.
ATM fees in the US have been a thing since ATMs have been a thing. It’s not new and didn’t start in the great recession.
And what do you mean by the government shutting down banks? Banks were killing themselves by doing dirty financial tricks and approving garbage loans and playing hot potato amongst each other with them.
Stress tests. Go read up on it. About 1/3 of banks, almost all midtier, were shutdown by the US government after the crisis has passed. Leaving places like Goldman (which caused the problem to begin with) with less competition. There are less baking companies in the US now then in 2007.
The fee goes to the bank when you use your debit card at the cash register it’s just the merchant that pays it then
This is discriminatory and it shouldn’t even need to exist, I mean, heck, you can literally buy legal weed over the internet now and get it delivered to your door, you can purchase seeds too because in 2018 selling hemp was decriminalized federally