Anyone go to Stafford?

[AshimotoK0]

I usually go to Stafford show as my son buys us both tickets and drives but we couldn't make it this time.
Anyone go and got anything to report back ?

[McCabe-Thiele (Ted)]

I usually go to Stafford show as my son buys us both tickets and drives but we couldn't make it this time.
Anyone go and got anything to report back ?

I've been going for the last few years - my BiL who was taking me tommorow has Covid so not going this Sunday might mike the Autumn show instead.

Probably a good thing as I w'ont be looking at  Maicolettas.

[Laverda Dave]

I usually go on the VFR but didn't need anything this year so decided to give it a miss and buy a ticket for the Bike Shed Show in May instead. 
I can't remember the last time when I went to Stafford in April (or October) and it didn't rain either on the way there or on the way back!

[davidcumbria]

I was there yesterday. Absolutely rammed - the post covid thinning out is over. Bought a few tools - amazing that many stands didn’t take cards and there was no cash machine at the showground. Didn’t see a single sohc of note. Looks like this show has got staying power after all.

[Moorey]

I was there yesterday. Absolutely rammed - the post covid thinning out is over. Bought a few tools - amazing that many stands didn’t take cards and there was no cash machine at the showground. Didn’t see a single sohc of note. Looks like this show has got staying power after all.

 It is a growing thing cash transactions are on the increase. Small businesses are fed up with paying for card transactions.

[Laverda Dave]

Here's a scary fact about going cashless;
If you have £50 and pay for every purchase with cash then £50 cash will have the same value in terms of spending power no matter how many cash transactions you make.
If however you have £50 in your bank account and you pay for every purchase from that same £50 using cashless payments after 30 cashless payments the monetary value of the original £50 will be worth £5. Why? Because the bank will add a 1.5% surcharge on every card transaction made and in so doing the bank makes shed loads of money on every cashless transaction made.
It is the banks pushing for a cashless society and not the traders. This is the reason for the cash is king campaign.

[davidcumbria]

Well by not having the card option those show traders lost £100 of sales to me yesterday of which they would have given £1.50 to the bank. As they were loading the gear back into the van wonder which they would have preferred ? Now those sales from me will probably go to some eBay seller who is slowly killing them anyway. Trying to go back to cash is raging at the wind.

[McCabe-Thiele (Ted)]

Here's a scary fact about going cashless;
If you have £50 and pay for every purchase with cash then £50 cash will have the same value in terms of spending power no matter how many cash transactions you make.
If however you have £50 in your bank account and you pay for every purchase from that same £50 using cashless payments after 30 cashless payments the monetary value of the original £50 will be worth £5. Why? Because the bank will add a 1.5% surcharge on every card transaction made and in so doing the bank makes shed loads of money on every cashless transaction made.
It is the banks pushing for a cashless society and not the traders. This is the reason for the cash is king campaign.

That looks a convincing narrative Dave - I think it's essentially untrue but looks convincing on the face of it.
It reminds me of the old conundrum about the three blokes going to buy a Trumpet from a second hand shop.

In fact after the first £50 transaction it is split into £49.25 to the vendor & £0.75 to the bank adding these two amounts still adds up to the original £50 value. Yes it lowers the vendors profit margin but no money is actually lost.

[SteveD CB500K0]

FACTCHECK

I've done a lot of this in the last few years as all of my customers' sites use ecommerce of one sort or another.

The most popular for small businesses is Square who charge 1.5% per transaction.
Stripe charges 20p + 1.0% which is bad news if you are selling newspapers (for example)

For Point Of Sale (POS) applications like a bike show or a market stall, Zettle is the most common. Owned by PayPal and charges 1.75% per transaction.

The vendor pays this, not the customer. If you sell something for £10 only £9.83 is sent to your bank.


Plus of course you have to buy the terminal (card reader) from them at anywhere from £30 to £300 for the iPad version that does stock control as well.

It is the vendor's choice to accept wireless or mobile payments.

[Nurse Julie]

Cash is still King in Lincolnshire. Yes, a majority of places take cards but there are some, including pubs, restraunts, butchers etc that will only accept cash or cheque. I don't blame them either. Some of the places that take cards have signs up saying 'cash is our preferred method of payment'. Most of these are independent businesses and not the multi nationals

[McCabe-Thiele (Ted)]

Back in the 1960/70s many banks charged businesses when you banked cash. The cost of handling cash was rolled up into the overall  bank charges to the business.

My late father used to tell me that when he was in the car trade back then most private purchases paid in cash with company purchases being paid  using cheques. He put the rapid expansion of private car ownership to the availability of hire purchase and credit sale agreements that reduced cash handling as finance companies often paid by cheque.

In the last three plus decades we take free personal  banking as the norm. Our "free" banking is in reality subsidised by different forms of fees attached to our transactions.

A local Chinese Takeaway has become cash only quite recently, truth be told cash can be a way to avoid paying income tax.
When I used to sell cars to Farmers they would want you to reduce the invoice price and pay the difference in cash.(Floor board/matress money from selling eggs etc privately) My late boss always like some cash of this type - no surprise when he was paying 95p in the pound including surtax.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_taxation_in_the_United_Kingdom

[taysidedragon]

I always keep some cash on me so that I can pay for items if the card system or bank computers go tits up - which seems to happen far too often. Call me old school if you want, never been caught unable to pay yet.
Of course,  if the shop tills stop working they won't even take cash!