Coles and Woolworths anger shoppers with issue Australians can't avoid
Shoppers who prefer to use cash are feeling 'discriminated' against at Coles and Woolworths as it becomes increasingly difficult to avoid paying by card.
Cash payment options at self-serve check-outs have dwindled in recent years in favour of card-only terminals despite research suggesting cash remains an important payment method for many Australians.
'Coles and Woolworths discriminate against cash users, everybody knows it, and it goes on every single day,' Melbourne-based financial journalist and campaign manager of CashWelcome Jason Bryce told Daily Mail Australia.
'They say they provide staff members to help us but when they ask us, "How are you paying today? Cash or card." If you say you're paying with cash, you end up waiting in a queue for 15 minutes for one or two terminals.
'If you say you're paying with a card you sail straight through with no waiting, that's blatant discrimination against millions of Australians.'
Mr Bryce said that at his local Coles in Williamstown, only two checkouts accept cash, while 14 are set up for card payments only.
Meanwhile, he said his local Woolworths has slightly more terminals that accept cash, but still only about four or five out of 20 self-serve checkouts.
'I have to wait longer to pay for my shopping, that's clear discrimination,' he argued.
Mr Bryce explained he wants to continue to be able to 'budget with cash'.
'None of us can avoid going to the supermarket, so they've got to do more to support the way people want to pay,' he added.
He has started a petition calling for mandated cash acceptance by essential retailers and local cash access for Australians has received over 200,000 signatures,
In September 2023, Woolworths announced a new limit of $200 Eftpos cash-outs while Coles introduced the same limit in March 2024.
The campaigner said this is unfair to the 'millions of Australians who budget with cash and rely on cash every single day'.
The Reserve Bank of Australia's most recent Consumer Payments Survey found that the share of consumer payments made in cash had fallen from around 70 per cent in 2007 to 13 per cent in 2022.
However, seven per cent of respondents used cash for 80 per cent or more of their in-person transactions, equivalent to around 1.5 million Australians aged 18 and over.
A Coles spokesperon said: 'We disagree with the claims. We know that cash remains an important payment method for some customers, and we have no plans to remove cash self-service options.
'If any of our customers can't find their preferred checkout option, we always have team members in the service area to who are there to help.'
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