Chanel Rampart / 19 February 2025 / Categories: City, Services, Shops, Specialty, Food & Drink

Cook and other cashless businesses

I first discovered the Cook shop in London, then found one in Stamford and then found out their delicious homemade food, fresh frozen was available in other outlets in the Midlands region, (actually 850 retail outlets across the UK) including Farndon Fields farm shop in Market Harborough and Langtons Garden Centre also just outside Market Harborough,

When I first started shopping with them in Maida Vale in London about 10 years ago now they definitely took cash. Sadly this store didn’t survive, closing in 2020. I’d get our supper in there a couple of times a week at least, now permanently closed. The food never disappointed in the early days and I was a definite champion for the brand. For me they couldn’t put a foot wrong. Some people complained they were a bit expensive but I love homemade food and know how expensive cooking from scratch actually is.

Although cash remains the 2nd choice in the UK with 39% of all transactions still cash transactions, 5% of British companies have elected to move to a cashless business model since the pandemic.

I personally don’t like it. I like paying cash. I find it easier to manage my money, and if a business like Cook and as I discovered today Zizzis pizza pasta restaurant chain doesn’t want my cash then I’ll choose to shop/eat elsewhere.

Cash is legal tender in the UK, but businesses are not obliged to serve people who only want to pay with notes and coins. The problem I have with this it excludes anyone without a bank account which sounds ridiculous until you cannot get a bank to allow you even basic facilities and it is happening more and more not just to marginalized people and the homeless but also to people who have lived overseas for a time and are returning to the UK to reside permanently once more.

It’s viewed as such a negative shift some countries, such as Australia, are planning to put rules in place that would force essential services to accept cash.

I struggle to see the difference between the divisive nature of an apartheid system and a cashless business, effectively refusing service based on social status. Wrong colour skin, no service, no bank account, no service.

The counter argument from the business perspective would probably say in London specifically during and post pandemic the amount of money being withdrawn from cash machines around the city dropped significantly according to Link, in January 2022.

However I believe this is attributed more to the restrictions on movement and socialising than a genuine shift away from the desire to use cash as the stats are not supported anywhere else in the country.

I think the businesses that have adopted cashless systems have done so to prevent internal fraud more than help customers.

I have a bank account and usually have a card available. In Zizzis when I was told I couldn’t pay cash I was able to pay by card. I’d be interested to know what happens if you’ve eaten your food, offer your cash with no other way to pay.