Accelerated thanks to the Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19) "pandemic," which trained the public into believing that cash is "dirty" and might "infect" them, reverse ATMs are starting to appear at amusement parks, sports stadiums, casinos, and other heavy use facilities that would rather not deal with paper and coins anymore.
Some restaurants, including Slutty Vegan and Brooklyn Dumpling Shop, both located in New York City, are also installing reverse ATMs to avoid the "dirtiness" of cash.
Since legal tender still technically has to be accepted, reverse ATMs exist in a legal gray area. Some states and cities are banning local businesses from refusing to accept cash, and for now reverse ATMs are something of a loophole to those rules.
(Related: Last summer, dozens of Whole Foods Market stores in California unveiled a new cashless payment system that allows customers to make food purchases with the palm of the hand – no more need for money or cards.)
Soon people will have "a virtual card" on their smartphones, expert says
As it turns out, there are still millions of Americans who have chosen not have a bank account or any type of credit or debit card. Since they have a right to shop and participate in society without such things, reverse ATMs help fill the void for them, too.
"Cash digitalization," as they are calling the scheme, aims to eventually replace all paper and coin cash with digital payment schemes.
"This is a competitive business," says Naushervan Beg, a partner and business development executive at Wavetec, a Toronto-based company that sells reverse ATMs under the brand name Azimut.
"Cash carries a lot of friction, right? Many venues are willing to pay for the machines because for them, the bigger pain point is taking the cash."
In the post-George Floyd age of constant smash-and-grab incidents and other forms of rioting, theft, and crime, many businesses are leery of having too much cash on hand at any given time for fear of robbery.
One such business is a food truck run by Slutty Vegan owner Pinky Cole, who told Axios that "we were making $15,000 to $20,000 a day, with five- to six-hour lines."
"Sometimes we had to have security because we were dealing with so much cash," Cole revealed.
Once people get used to the idea of using reverse ATMs, which quite frankly are spying machines disguised as convenience machines, the plan will be to do away with cash entirely.
At some point, all these reverse ATMs will be replaced with injectable chips that will require people to use their hands or other body parts to make payments with a quick swipe.
"It might not be a physical card," Beg says about how the coming cashless society will progress. "You can have a virtual card on your smartphone."
For the time being, reverse ATMs will likely continue to appear, forcing patrons and customers to make the conversion before being allowed to eat, attend a sporting event, ride public transit, or even pay at a toll booth.
"Big Brother wants to chip your hands," one commenter wrote. "They will offer $100 in food stamps for people to receive it, like the pizza coupons for getting the covid vaccine."
Another wrote that it is no surprise Whole Foods is leading the charge towards a cashless society, seeing as how it is owned by Amazon, a product of Jeff Bezos.
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