Cash Used In Only 32% Of Retail Transactions Last Year

[matcom]

<snip>

Whenever state trooper Michael Poupart pulls over a speeding motorist on I-94 in Wisconsin's Kenosha County, he offers to take Visa or MasterCard debit and credit cards right there on the side of the road.

Drivers initially look puzzled, until the trooper explains he has a card swiper onboard. "Then they say 'OK,' and hand over the card," he says. "They'd rather deal with it right there."

Trooper Poupart is one reason the nation passed a watershed last year. For the first time, Americans used cards -- credit, debit and others -- to buy retail goods and services more often than they used cash or check in 2003.

The nation now uses cards to subscribe to cable TV, pay taxes and hire Phil Marlowe, a 17-year-old in Tyngsboro, Mass., to cart stuff in the back of his Chevy Silverado. He carries a cellphone with a "PowerSwipe" snapped onto the back to handle his card transactions. His sales roughly doubled when he started advertising credit-card acceptance on the side of his truck. "One lady gave me a $30 tip just because I accepted cards," he says.

http://online.wsj.com/article_email/0,,SB109053116869571496-IVjg4NklaF3oZ2rZ4KIbqiIm4,00.html

[markbark]

1. Phil Marlowe?!?

Quoth the poster:
The nation now uses cards to subscribe to cable TV, pay taxes and hire Phil Marlowe, a 17-year-old in Tyngsboro, Mass., to cart stuff in the back of his Chevy Silverado.

I can see it now... <Fade to moody film noir lighting>

She came up to the window of my Silverado with a pleading look in her eye.
She was a blonde.
The kind of blonde that would make a bishop kick in a stained glass window.
"Please Mr. Marlowe" she gasped. "I NEED you to take this job for me. But only," she paused for a moment, her lip quivering. "Only if you take.........PLASTIC"


.... and I suppose Sam Spade will be delivering groceries soon? :crazy:

then again, in this post-literate world I suppose he doesn't get TOO many comments on his name :(


--MAB