And I Thought I'd Seen Everything...

In response to my query on the Beyond Chicagoland board about Westchester Co. NY restaurants, hiddenboston recommended Mulino's in White Plains.

Checking out their website, I came across the following:
PAYMENT OPTIONS- "We accept all major credit cards. Please note that no cash will be accepted for dinner checks."

I almost never use cash. Still, under those terms, I don't know if I'd go there. They must either have a very good reason, or it's the ultimate in suburban New York pretension.

Is that even legal? I've seen this practice at places where you have to leave a deposit, like for car rental, but I've never seen it at a retail establishment.

Speaking as a lawyer, you'll all be pleased to hear that the official answer is "yes and no."

Pull out a dollar bill from your pocket. Any denomination. It's got some small lettering that appears to answer the question: "This note is legal tender for all debts, public and private." That's not-so-legalese for, "This stuff must be accepted in satisfaction of a debt." But that means for a debt already existing. I don't care if you're trying to protect your staff from contracting some ultra-rare, highly contagious disease that is transmitted exclusively through paper currency, ya can't legally refuse cash when the debt is already contracted.

As you surmised, the "already existing" is the catch. You can't legally refuse cash so long as the buyer was not made aware of your terms. In other words, you can impose any conditions you want--but ONLY in advance. If they post a prominent sign saying "We accept payment only in shark's teeth," they are entitled to enforce that and CAN legally refuse payment in cash. On the other hand, if they don't properly notify (we'll skip over what "properly" means in this context) people of the rules, any poor slob who goes in and isn't made aware CAN force them to accept cash. Confused?

If you don't believe me, take a look at the website of the Federal Reserve Board:

"Is U.S. currency legal tender for all debts?

According to the "Legal Tender Statute" (section 5103 of title 31 of the U.S. Code), "United States coins and currency (including Federal Reserve notes and circulating notes of Federal Reserve banks and national banks) are legal tender for all debts, public charges, taxes, and dues." This means that all U.S. money, as identified above, when tendered to a creditor legally satisfies a debt to the extent of the amount (face value) tendered.

However, no federal law mandates that a person or an organization must accept currency or coins as payment for goods or services not yet provided. For example, a bus line may prohibit payment of fares in pennies or dollar bills."


P.S. Where do I send the bill?

Thanks, Gypsy Boy. Do you have change for 6 shiny pebbles and a snail shell?

Gypsy Boy wrote:P.S. Where do I send the bill?

Nowhere until you get your paralegal to start bluebooking correctly.

jpschust wrote:Nowhere until you get your paralegal to start bluebooking correctly.

Ah, but if you read this correctly, you'd note that the incorrect form was quoted directly from the FRB website; can I help it if they don't know how to cite? (Hell, they don't even know how to use quotation marks!)

Mhays wrote:Is that even legal? I've seen this practice at places where you have to leave a deposit, like for car rental, but I've never seen it at a retail establishment.

A few years back, I had ran a hospital dietary department in St. Louis. I had to have a Food Establishment License from the city. I stopped by the ATM, took out $200, and went over to the board of health to get the license.

They wouldn't accept cash in payment. Therefore, I had to walk down the street to a bank, purchase a cashier's check and bring it back to the clerk. What a waste of time.

I'd be interested to know the rationale for the policy. Credit cards obviously result in certain costs not associated with cash (costs of the systems to process cards, service fees from the issuers, etc.). But I suppose there may be some advantages as well. Maybe it's that credit cards make for easier accounting, make skimming from the till an impossibility, simplify banking (no need to make deposits), decrease the chances of robbery, etc. There are consumer studies out there showing that people with credit cards will spend more money that people with cash because they won't feel constrained by what they have in their wallets, and there is some evidence this may apply in the restaurant context as well. (See, e.g., Andrew Beattie, Should You Pay In Cash?, INVESTOPEDIA (2008), http://www.investopedia.com/articles/pf ... n-cash.asp.)

Maybe this should be combined with the thread about places that only interact with their customers through bulletproof glass. If those places refused cash, they could do away with the bulletproof glass, too.

Matt wrote:I'd be interested to know the rationale for the policy.

I'm guessing, in addition to what you've listed here, you also eliminate clientele who don't have access to bank accounts. I hope that's not the reason, but that's probably why snobbery is implicit.

I dunno, riddlemay - credit card numbers are just as hot an item...

Hi,

It is entirely possible they had employees pilfering cash. At Dunkin Donuts in Highland Park, they offer you a free coffee if you don't get a receipt. While it could a be procedural error why an employee failed to give you a receipt. It could also be a transaction that bypassed the cash register altogether. The customer has the incentive of a free coffee if a receipt is absent. The employee keeps his job if he does present you a receipt.

My local go-to tacqueria for close to 18 years recently installed a computer ordering system. The transaction begins when the order taker puts their thumb on a pad to identify them. AFter that it is all conducted with a touch screen. My guestimate they have had a decline in business due to a new vigorous competitor. The owners, who seem to be largely absent, may have suspected pilfering instead of a change in business dynamics. Prior to this change, it was a paper system with no bill presented at the table. You gave your table number to the cashier who grabbed your order ticket to total it. A side benefit to the new system, they bring an itemized check to the table with the server's name clearly stated. I'm ashamed to admit I never really knew my favorite server's name until recently

Regards,