newsXpress Toorak was on A Current Affair last night because of their decision to go cashless from Monday for health and safety reasons.
If you decide to go cashless in response to COVID-19, I suggest you remove all surcharges and that you fully explain your reasons. Maybe something along the lines of…
We are going cashless for the health and safety of our customers and employees.
We appreciate this may be challenging for some and we apologise for that. We will try and accomodate the needs of those affected.
We are not playing into a conspiracy to remove cash from society. Rather, our health and your health are what matter here.
Be safe everyone and thank you for supporting our local business.
Unfortunately, shrill reporting of the story on social media has lead to some nasty comments being made not only about the business but about newsagencies more broadly.
My advice is to not go completely cashless.Always have a way of serving for cash. But above all, get your messaging right. Shows like ACA are there to encourage and feed trolls.
This opens a whole new spectrum of thought.
Handling money and handling same, same so what do we do with the handling og say Greeting Cards -Customers pick upone open read it put it back and repeat the process many times over. then they may or may not buy a card at all. Any thoughts on this and please don’t say buy on line because that’s obvious and it defeats our retail presence.
Looking at this only from a physical store perspective … I think we will see a retail shutdown in one or more states starting within the next 7 days. So, I think the cash question will become moot.
That said, in retail, at the counter – take cash. However, give staff regular hand wash breaks as well as easy access to hand sanitiser. You could also give staff gloves, which protect them better but can look alarming.
The bigger issue is if a staff member or a regular customer is diagnosed. The protocol is self quarantine, which means closing the shop.
Another issue is the distinction between Coronavirus and a normal cold or flu. Current advice suggest if you haven’t been overseas or in contact with a Coronavirus sufferer you do not need to get tested. We can’t shut our businesses because someone has a cold.
Closing a shop is fine, but if the shop is in a centre and has closed signs on it, it is inevitable public mood and or management action will close the rest of the centre.
Like Europe the govt is on the backfoot and hoping for the best. Look where it has got Europe, France and Spain retail going same way as Italy.
Korea, Singapore, China took a far more pro active approach and they have got results.
Morrison package is more geared towards re-election that fighting the virus. With a big suspicion the package is actually addressing an underlying economy issue, that was there before covid19.
Go visit a big retail shed today (I’m not) and you will find mass crowds some fed by panic buying.
The feeling I get is a govt with fingers crossed and hoping for the best. What the country needs is leadership and action, not a wimp trying to avoid the next spill.
I expect the Victorian government to be the rest to act.
A I comentred on this subject in another thread I believe it will the public who will decide in my area unless the wimp gets in first to prove he is a saviuor.
Jason, your gender assumption is wrong, your reference to Helen Keller is offensive and your assumption that the store brought in ACA is wrong. Outside of that, as I have noted, this could have been handled better and without blocking shoppers who can only pay by cash.