Why do Chinese restaurants only accept cash?

Whether you are traveling abroad or studying abroad. You will find a very interesting phenomenon. Many, even most, Chinese restaurants will put up "cash only" signs in their stores, most of which are handwritten and some are slightly printed.

At first, I thought it was nothing, just cash. But after staying abroad for a long time, when I gradually got used to taking only my card out, I suddenly found that "taking only cash" brought me great trouble. Except for Chinese restaurants, almost all other payment scenarios are solved by a card, and small amounts can be paid in flash, swiped on the POST machine, and even a password is not required. However, every time I go to a Chinese restaurant after class, my heart is extremely divided. My China stomach pulls me to China restaurant, and my brain pulls me home. There are three reasons: first, eating Chinese food is slightly expensive; The second is to pay cash, which will make me feel more expensive; Third, I'm lazy. I have to go to the ATM to withdraw money. Although, more often, I will go to a Chinese restaurant alone to have a delicious meal, which will satisfy my devastated experience for a long time, especially after adding two spoonfuls of Chili sauce.

But as a slash youth, you should think carefully after each refresh. Why do Chinese restaurants only accept cash?

I went to Zhihu and Quora (foreign Zhihu, no, domestic Zhihu is Quora) and searched my personal database (Evernote), and listed five reasons why Chinese restaurants only accept cash (in my opinion, the order is from lowest to highest):

1. China gang steals credit card information. Many foreign local Chinese gangs "patronize" Chinese restaurants and then steal the credit card information left by the mounter to do some "bad things". This kind of thing is possible, but it is definitely rare. Stealing credit card information abroad seems to be a great crime. I only know that a friend of mine mistakenly filled in information on a website with the beginning of R, which led to the theft of the information card, but the bank called to verify it at the first time, and then immediately frozen the bank card, and there was no property loss. Compared with China, the government and banking institutions issue announcements every day to remind the general public to be alert to the theft of credit card information. Why not upgrade and improve the financial system to prevent fraud from the bottom, but always teach consumers how to prevent fraud like parents. Do you care about consumers or don't want to improve the system?

2. Illegal workers and illegal immigrants. Many Chinese restaurants will recruit some illegal immigrants as illegal workers, because the wages are low and the costs can be saved. Chinese restaurants will only pay their salaries in cash, because if they get paid, the tax or immigration authorities will come to trouble.

3. handling fee. All along, I think Chinese restaurants are just for saving money. However, you will find another phenomenon. Many Chinese restaurants also support credit card payment, but the front desk will secretly tell you that there is a discount for cash payment, generally between 8.5% and 9.5%. I checked, restaurants like Chinese restaurants need to pay about 2% handling fee to VISA or MASTER every time they use credit card service. Obviously, this handling fee rate is much lower than the discount rate, so this is untenable.

China people have always liked cash. That makes sense, but I don't believe that other ethnic groups don't like cash. I think little black brother likes wearing gold chains best, and probably likes cash, too.

5. Tax evasion. This reason is the most likely. The tax rate of each country and region is different, but because the catering industry is a service industry, the tax rate will be much higher than that of manufacturing industry, generally 20-30%, and in some countries it will be lower than 20%, but for Chinese restaurants, this expenditure is very large. Can't the tax authorities find out? Quora, someone replied that the tax bureau has a special person to check these restaurants. How to check? Taxpayers will pretend to be customers and then go to restaurants for dinner. While pretending to eat, they will estimate the restaurant's passenger flow, turnover rate and the amount spent per order, and sometimes count the number of parking lots. Then go back and use a set of algorithms to estimate the turnover of this restaurant and compare it with the figures reported by the restaurant. If it exceeds a certain range, go directly to the store and seal the computer and bring it back for inspection. However, there are still many restaurants that only accept cash with great fanfare. The main reason is the high cost of law enforcement. If every restaurant does this, the government may have to invest much more money than the fine, so simply don't check it.

Well, the biggest problem is coming. If so, why don't other restaurants do this, but Chinese restaurants are naked with "cash only"?

Some people say that China people like to take advantage of loopholes and be greedy for petty gains, while westerners are law-abiding and have the spirit of contract. Yes, it is! But that's it?

The seemingly clever Chinese restaurant owner is actually ignorant. Let me dissect it.

Chinese restaurant owners certainly don't know one sentence: "Pay for the pain". Compared with credit card consumption, cash payment will make consumers feel more losses. But the key is not the visual impact brought by cash payment, but the sense of "on-the-spot" makes our loss aversion double. There is a good example in behavioral economics. Many of us don't care much about utilities, because we only pay them once a month or even half a year. If we install the water meter on the faucet, it will rotate with the water and save a lot of money every month.

This reminds me of one thing when I was a child:

When I was a child, because my parents were busy at work, I was fostered in a relative's house. My relative's water meter is installed next to the faucet. Every time I play football and go to a relative's house for dinner, I suddenly turn on the tap to take a bath, and the water meter keeps turning. My relatives think it's a waste of water, so before coming back every time, prepare me a bucket of water saved by drip irrigation. The old water meter used to be insensitive. If you master the personality of each faucet, the amount on your water bill can be zero.

There are examples of economists' research:

In auction, people will be willing to pay twice as much as cash if they can pay by credit card. In restaurants, tipping by credit card is at least higher than that by cash 10%. Even people who are usually frugal can easily become generous once they use credit cards.

Therefore, behavioral economists believe that credit card payment can make consumers more willing to pay, while cash gives people great loss and pain. Don't think economists are liars. In How Do We Decide, the low pain of credit card payment is mentioned, and there is even experimental evidence of brain imaging:

Experiments have found that spending with credit cards will weaken the activity of the insula part of the brain responsible for negative emotions.

Look, this is based on scientific experiments! Orthodox science!

Again, "Decisiveness: How to make better choices in life and work" says:

When you pay by credit card, the amount of money in your mind is a continuous change, and you won't feel much. But to pay in cash, you need to take out one bill after another, which is equivalent to dividing the money into several small pieces, and each bill is a whole dollar. People are not sensitive to continuous quantities, but sensitive to divided things.

To sum up, that is to say, consumers will spend more money by using credit cards or swiping cards. This not only facilitates consumers, but also increases turnover. Do you think Chinese restaurant owners are ignorant?

So, I want to draw a conclusion. The owner of China restaurant is very clever.

Yes, you're right. You are very clever. If you carefully observe these "cash only" Chinese restaurants, you will find that they all have one thing in common: more than 95% of the consumers are from China! These Chinese restaurant owners know very well that my consumer groups are China people (mainly international students), those foreigners are not my target customers, and China people in a region are limited, so my turnover is relatively stable. I don't need to increase operating costs, install mounters and improve service experience to attract consumers who would not otherwise patronize.

Many China restaurants in the city center offer credit card service, because their target customers are not only China people, but also foreigners. The market economy is so great that China people are really smart.

But is this really the case? My opinion: The intelligence of China people is based on the servility of China people. Once a friend and I went to a China restaurant for dinner, and the rice served was a little undercooked. A friend said, ask the boss to come over for dinner. Another friend and I quickly said, forget it. The big deal is not to eat here next time. My friend confidently said that we always compromise like this and are afraid of trouble, which will not only harm our own rights and interests, but also make these restaurants more unscrupulous and not pay attention to quality and service.

My friend's words are really inspiring and reverberating.

You see, many times we blame many things in China on irrationality, such as the anti-fraud system of the bank I complained about above, or the poor service. As consumers, we also have responsibilities. We in China love generals, are afraid of troubles, and have no sense of citizenship, which makes the whole environment in China worse.

There is no doubt that the government or enterprises should bear all the responsibilities. But don't forget, aren't we also a part of the government and thousands of enterprises in Qian Qian?

References:

How Do We Decide? The Chinese version of the book is entitled Why Gorillas Are Smarter than Experts. The author is Jonah Lehrer. ?

Decisiveness: How to make better choices in life and work? The Chinese version is called Decisiveness, and the authors are Chip Heath and Dan Heath.