the commercial lies

You may remember a commercial, probably for visa, where everyone is in a cafeteria line and there's music playing in rhythm with each customer paying for their meal with their debit card. Then one person pulls out cash and the music comes to a screeching halt, and the person is bascially shunned because they ruined the fast paced rhythm of the check-out line.

I think of this commercial all the time when I am working at the cafe because it is actually the exact opposite. When I have a line out the door and am working at the register, I hate to see someone pull our their credit card. This means sliding the card, waiting for the receipts to print, giving them the receipt to sign, waiting for them to decide if they're going to tip me or not, signing it, them handing it back and waiting for the register to finalize the transaction. All this in the time I could have had 3 customers pay with cash and move on. Also if the card is old and the machine won't read the strip, I have to type in the card number manually.

So. If you have the cash, I say use it. Don't be fooled by that commercial. It's for people who want to make themselves feel better for holding up lines with their credit cards.