Last night or the day before, I forget, I wrote
a long note to the granddaughters about "the next big thing." I wrote this:
That brings us to a "cashless" society. Cyprus may be a "cashless"
society by next Monday. Apple stores are cashless. I do think someone
big is going to go cashless and that will change everything. Could
Wal-Mart go cashless? For those who don't have a credit card, or some
type of mobile payment (SmartPhone, for example), they pay for a company
cash card at customer service when they come in the door.
So, I about fell off the couch when this story was aired a few minutes on the local CBS evening news: JCP (JC Penney) is going cashless. Well, it turns out, I was "out of the loop." That was old, very old news.
On the net, back on July 27, 2012:
Cash registers could join the ranks of pay phones and typewriters sooner
than you think. J.C. Penney will say farewell to cash registers,
checkout counters and cashiers by 2014, said Ron Johnson, the chain's
CEO, during the Fortune Brainstorm Tech conference, reports Time.
Penney's plan evokes Apple's mostly cash-register free stores -- and
that comes as little surprise: Johnson was the head of Apple Retail and
is considered the mastermind behind its success. He left Apple in
November to take the top spot at J.C. Penney. His plan is to eliminate
cashiers, cash registers and checkout counters, replacing them with a
patchwork of technology solutions, such as WiFi networks, mobile
checkout, RFID (radio frequency identification) tracking systems, as
well as self-checkout options.
And, doing a google search, you can find all kinds of stories on JCP going cashless. I missed it. Amazing.