Cashless System

The only problem now days with cash tips is that from what I have observed, is that there are establishments that demand that all cash tips are deposited in a jar or box, and then divided up equally with the entire staff at the end of the shift.

It's tough because I never carry cash, but the one time I need to tip a driver or someone at Bell Services at a resort, I feel like a fool. Those are really the only tipped positions I think cash is necessary. I even tip from the Starbucks app.

One random downside is the removal of anything in the park that is still coin-operated. It's not that big of a loss for CP (i.e., the only things left I think were the fish food dispensers for the carp in Frontier Town), but down at KI they removed the coin-operated binoculars on the Eiffel Tower observation deck, and that stung quite a bit to discover that removal last week.

I mean, (fish) food for thought, but I feel like it wouldn't be too hard to rig up some sort of central token dispenser for little things like the binoculars or wildlife feeding thingies, vs the hypothetical alternative of finding binoculars with a card reader or what have you. In all actuality, those are probably just going away, which stinks but I guess it is what it is. They're obviously not little things that are going to make or break one's day at the park, but they're still little enjoyable things that will be missed.

The collectable coin kiosks in the game plaza and in the entrance of snoopy boutique, The smashed penny dispensers all around the park, insert 2 quarters and a penny and get back an oblong smashed penny embossed with a variety of CP stuff.

^Oh wow, didn't even think of that one!

bootymix96 said:

...but down at KI they removed the coin-operated binoculars on the Eiffel Tower observation deck, and that stung quite a bit to discover that removal last week.

Were those there last year? I went to the top last year but cannot remember if they were there or not. I would have guessed they were removed due to Covid.

^ Re: the Penny Smashers and Collectible Coin machines, I've seen those configured for card readers at a number of places like the USAF Museum and even the random ones at the OH Turnpike rest stops. Granted for the Penny Smashers at least those are the automated ones that drop the coins in for you and IMO don't make nearly as good of a pressed penny as the hand-cranked ones, but I'm really not sure how you'd retrofit a manual one with a card reader.

Dennis Urban said:

The collectable coin kiosks in the game plaza and in the entrance of snoopy boutique, The smashed penny dispensers all around the park, insert 2 quarters and a penny and get back an oblong smashed penny embossed with a variety of CP stuff.

I mean, those have been credit-card enabled at other parks for years now. It costs $1 but the thing has its own penny supply inside, so it gives you a penny and only costs you 99 cents.

The cool thing about that is, they have, say, 8 designs - you can pay $1 for one, or $5 for all 8, and it's pretty simple.

The sum total of cash I've withdrawn in the last three or four years was maybe $40, and that's just because my babysitter still doesn't have a Venmo account. I've been cashless for a very long time. Yeah, valet tipping is a problem in that sense, but their employers should pay them adequately or provide an electronic way to tip.

From the Q&A session after the recent earnings call:

There's a lot of costs, as you would imagine, handling cash, preparing cash. It's also been a big driver in the early going around per cap growth that's helping drive that per cap growth at a much more efficient transaction using credit cards and other digital forms of payment versus cash. So one example of an initiative that's benefiting us both on the cost savings but also the revenue generation side.

So they will save money on the expense side and expect at least some people to spend more not using cash.

https://www.fool.com/earnings/call-transcripts/2022/05/04/cedar-fai...ranscript/

Going cashless makes no Cents.
ok I dont really mind but I wanted the joke.

Tipped employees always report all of their earned tips (wink, wink). To keep them honest there is a formula applied where their expected cash tips are expected to be at least some percentage of their credit card tips...that is, the credit card tips are added up, a percentage is taken, that percentage is applied to cash sales and that's the expected cash tip income, the minimum cash tip income that must be reported.

When I pay with a credit card, I leave a cash tip. That way the goose-egg on the tip line on the credit receipt reduces the tip percentage of credit card sales, which in turn reduces the mandatory reported cash tip rate. For a completely honest server working in a completely honest house, this has no impact on the server's tip income or tax liability.

In the real world it may allow the server to receive a slightly higher tip income and to keep a slightly larger percentage of it. Personally, I think tipping is a terrible practice, and taxing tips as regular income is a place where "taxation is theft" might well have originated...I can't make either practice go away, but I can subvert it a little bit.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

Dave, I like that idea. No more credit card tips here.

Thank you Dave for that explanation, I've heard it before and it's part of the reason why I prefer to tip cash but I could not have explained it as well as you did.

Here's some of the machines for anyone curious.

Jeff said:

Yeah, valet tipping is a problem in that sense, but their employers should pay them adequately or provide an electronic way to tip.

So are you saying that because the employer is a jerk, that absolves you from being one as well? I know that is NOT what you are saying, but it still kind of sounds like it.

$40 over a year to pay your babysitter Jeff? I wish your babysitter worked down here when my kids were younger. That's a steal.

That's $40 for one night, not a year!

Rusty said:
So are you saying that because the employer is a jerk, that absolves you from being one as well? I know that is NOT what you are saying, but it still kind of sounds like it.

Valets are not paid server wages. In fact, the one specific place that I sometimes use valet, I know they're paid $15 an hour. So no, I don't tip them, and I'm not a jerk for it. You don't know me, so back off and tread carefully. What I tip servers is way above average.

Does anyone know if the CP server locations like Chickie&petes, Johnny rockets, etc. are paid appropriately? The same as the counter service places? Are they expecting tips or is it a bonus? I've left tips for them in the past, but lately I've been cashless too. How are you supposed to calculate a tip on a dining plan meal?