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Space Kablooey posted:Anecdotes in this forum mostly. A cursory Google search puts US cash use around 25-30% of all transactions. Mostly for low cost transactions, under $25. Id bet that dropped sharply this year with the drop in service related transactions. The remaining transactions are card based, debit and credit. I don't know where you live but found this interesting, the last one I read claims Europe is 80% cash transactions.
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Jan 18, 2021 17:36
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I propose that a group of Karens be referred to as a Disney of Karens moving forward. You can see them off in the distance making their seasonal migrations... a caravan of Karen vans.
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Jan 18, 2021 17:37
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StormDrain posted:A cursory Google search puts US cash use around 25-30% of all transactions. Mostly for low cost transactions, under $25. Id bet that dropped sharply this year with the drop in service related transactions. "Europe" as a category is pretty broad - I've found that say in the Benelux pretty much everything is cashless versus in say, the Czech Republic, the thriving no-VAT grey market means cash is quite useful. I pretty much always carry local cash wherever I am, which is BWM (I have a little box full of foreign currency, and I only occasionally remember to take out my stack of reals/florins/crowns/lira/yuan when I go on a trip, so it always gets added to) but GWL (paying highway tolls in Brazil requires cash, who knew).
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Jan 18, 2021 17:40
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KYOON GRIFFEY JR posted:i can't really fault the latter idea since that's basically what I do to go skiing I lived in Orlando for 12 years for college and young adulthood (I grew up in the Tampa area) and my husband and I were one of these people - we saved up for our annual passes each year and it would just be our hangout place. We left Florida before Disney became this big thing on social media, and we still have a soft spot for it but we were never the horrible rabid guests. Some of our favorite parts were just chatting with the cast members, and walking around and seeing what had changed with the flowers.
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Jan 18, 2021 17:41
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KYOON GRIFFEY JR posted:i would probably describe going skiing as going to a corporate recreation empire's park to get bamboozled out of even more money than your entrance fee
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Jan 18, 2021 17:49
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KYOON GRIFFEY JR posted:i can't really fault the latter idea since that's basically what I do to go skiing I can appreciate a well done turn and burn for something that makes sense, especially in the context of seasonal things like skiing or going to a specific event. I get it for someone doing a one-shot trip where the only way they can afford it is cutting every cost as deep as they can. Disney passholders going every X weeks don't fit either category. This may be "the worst of it are on the internet" but I've known multiple people in real life who absolutely matched up to this type of bullshit.
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Jan 18, 2021 17:54
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It's the same thing that Trump lovers do, buying all the merch because they confuse liking something with a personality.
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Jan 18, 2021 17:57
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I definitely carry cash and use it for small places in the US, but other than that I don't use it unless I have to. These points don't just make themselves, y'know. Overseas, yeah, it's a little different, about the only place I'd use a card would be the grocery store or on bigger purchases.
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Jan 18, 2021 18:01
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A few weeks before the pandemic, my sister's friend got my wife and I in to both Disney parks in California for minimal/no fee. We spent the day seeing Indiana Jones/Star wars stuff, riding classic rides like the tower of terror/Space Mountain, and NGL, we had an awesome time as a pair of 30-somethings with no kids. First time doing anything Disney related since I was a teenager, and man if they don't know how to bottle and sell the poo poo out of nostalgia. We'll probably go back when we have kids.
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Jan 18, 2021 18:13
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KYOON GRIFFEY JR posted:"Europe" as a category is pretty broad - I've found that say in the Benelux pretty much everything is cashless versus in say, the Czech Republic, the thriving no-VAT grey market means cash is quite useful. Absolutely. The article said Scandinavians are cash adverse and the Spanish love it. I guess generalizing large groups of people by landmass isn't really effective?
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Jan 18, 2021 18:15
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StormDrain posted:Absolutely. The article said Scandinavians are cash adverse and the Spanish love it. Yeah, I have Swedish Krona in my foreign money just in case stash and have used it like once for a small purchase at a convenient store and got a look of disdain. A similar look when my flithy american card makes their reader spit out a receipt that needs to be signed as they sigh and go look for a pen.
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Jan 18, 2021 18:27
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Aren't the Japanese obsessed with cash? Why are Disney people so obsessed with the food there? I love to lurk the Disney thread on SA and a few times same people have dropped in and said the food is a step above Applebees at best. n8r fucked around with this message at 18:47 on Jan 18, 2021 |
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Jan 18, 2021 18:40
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I'm in Brazil and I only use cash to pay public transport, the intercity bus to São Paulo, or highway tolls.n8r posted:Aren't the Japanese obsessed with cash? I heard that too, and more confusingly, I also heard that you don't hand the cash straight to the teller person, you have to set it on a tray and then the person on the till picks it up. This may be just a thing in mom & pop stores though.
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Jan 18, 2021 18:45
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Space Kablooey posted:I heard that too, and more confusingly, I also heard that you don't hand the cash straight to the teller person, you have to set it on a tray and then the person on the till picks it up. This may be just a thing in mom & pop stores though. It's definitely a thing even in larger businesses, or at least was when I went about a decade ago. I think it comes from the same place as bowing, vs. the handshake, just a cultural aversion to hand-to-hand contact with strangers.
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Jan 18, 2021 18:49
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n8r posted:Why are Disney people so obsessed with the food there? I love to lurk the Disney thread on SA and a few times same people have dropped in and said the food is a step above Applebees at best. Everything tastes better when you're exhausted from hoofing it around the park, but the (hellishly overpriced) churros, corn dogs, and Monte Cristo sandwiches are all delicious. Residency Evil posted:A few weeks before the pandemic, my sister's friend got my wife and I in to both Disney parks in California for minimal/no fee. We spent the day seeing Indiana Jones/Star wars stuff, riding classic rides like the tower of terror/Space Mountain, and NGL, we had an awesome time as a pair of 30-somethings with no kids. Peak Disney experience is when your kid is tall enough to ride everything and brave enough to enjoy it. Watching my kid go from nervous to giddy on not-Tower-of-Terror-anymore was amazing.
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Jan 18, 2021 18:56
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KYOON GRIFFEY JR posted:i would probably describe going skiing as going to a corporate recreation empire's park to get bamboozled out of even more money than your entrance fee With all of the consolidation, skiing is definitely moving closer to the Disney ideal than before. I'll still argue that centering a trip around a physical activity is very different than centering one around a fantasy world created by a corporation.
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Jan 18, 2021 19:00
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n8r posted:Why are Disney people so obsessed with the food there? I love to lurk the Disney thread on SA and a few times same people have dropped in and said the food is a step above Applebees at best.
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Jan 18, 2021 19:00
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n8r posted:
Honestly Disney food runs the gamut from "step above Applebees" at worst to five star dining: https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/dining/grand-floridian-resort-and-spa/victoria-and-alberts/ There are tons of great options and high quality, even healthy, food but it very much can be hit or miss. But no, it's not all terrible quality, I'd say it was hard to find food that actively sucked. Just don't stick to the burgers/fries/turkey legs/etc. Edit: I absolutely cannot stand Applebees. Let me make that clear. Involuntary Sparkle fucked around with this message at 19:09 on Jan 18, 2021 |
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Jan 18, 2021 19:04
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n8r posted:
Oh man, you reminded me of my wife's friend from nursing school. She got engaged (or maybe married) at Disney and holy poo poo her entire Facebook wall was pictures of rather average-looking food from there. She's a big gal, so I'm not sure how surprised I am that she has such terrible taste in vacations and meals.
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Jan 18, 2021 19:06
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Fat people take bad vacations, is a take I am not familiar with
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Jan 18, 2021 19:06
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GoGoGadgetChris posted:Fat people take bad vacations, is a take I am not familiar with lmao yeah that one came out of nowhere "it makes sense that she would be stupid--fat, and all. you know how they are."
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Jan 18, 2021 19:09
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My uncle is a retired cop, a So Cal resident, and also a big time Disneyland nut. He's had an annual pass for the last ~30 years. A few years ago, he combined his interests and became part of the security staff at Disneyland. He told us that if he were to have self evaluated himself as a Disney nut before he started working there, he'd probably call himself an 8 out of 10. After he started working there, he says "I'm barely a 2 out of 10." He didn't change, his scale just changed to see all the loonies. And of course, he has some great stories there (before he got fired for stupid, extremely corporate reasons) Some highlights: A husband/wife couple stuffing their handguns into a stroller so they wouldn't buzz the metal detector on the way in. When they got noticed, they argued "It's OK, we're cops." Unless you're uniformed and on duty with Anaheim PD, you may not have a gun in Disneyland. (sole exception, the tethered revolvers on the Jungle Cruise that shoot blanks are actual guns)
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Jan 18, 2021 19:10
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Probably a bad take, but whatever. I'm sure she'll be riding a rascal to animated Mecca eventually.
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Jan 18, 2021 19:14
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I went to disneyworld once when I was 12 while visiting family in Orlando. Lots of the rides were cool, but only a couple were cool enough to justify how much time was spent standing in line. I had never had a turkey leg before that trip, and never will again. The only picture that survived was one from the end of the day where my mom is trying to lead my crying younger brother around, and me half out of the frame and not smiling. I only ever knew it to rest in a dusty, broken disney frame as a memorial to mediocrity. Overall I felt bad my for parents spending the money on what's marketed as The One True Theme Park, but I suppose it's better than the alternative of us growing up to be Disney People.
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Jan 18, 2021 19:15
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BonerGhost posted:Getting rid of coins is always good. Counterpoint: At the grocery store yesterday I witnessed a guy paying for his groceries at the self-checkout scanner with coins. And I don't mean like he struck me as some poor guy who'd gone through the couch cushions to find enough spare change to afford a packet of ramen, I mean he had a normal-sized load of normal groceries and was paying for it by feeding like $60 in coins one coin at a time into the slot. Wasn't just quarters, either.
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Jan 18, 2021 19:49
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Phanatic posted:Counterpoint: At the grocery store yesterday I witnessed a guy paying for his groceries at the self-checkout scanner with coins. The coinstar machine takes a commission, this is way simpler.
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Jan 18, 2021 20:33
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Volmarias posted:The coinstar machine takes a commission, this is way simpler. Coinstars don’t take a cut of an Amazon gift card, though it’s something nuts like 10% if you’re getting cash back.
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Jan 18, 2021 20:39
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Maybe he heard of the great coin shortage and was doing his patriotic duty to do his part in alleviating it.
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Jan 18, 2021 21:06
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kw0134 posted:Maybe he heard of the great coin shortage and was doing his patriotic duty to do his part in alleviating it. Yeah he's probably the reason I can't do laundry.
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Jan 18, 2021 21:10
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Involuntary Sparkle posted:I lived in Orlando for 12 years for college and young adulthood (I grew up in the Tampa area) and my husband and I were one of these people - we saved up for our annual passes each year and it would just be our hangout place. We left Florida before Disney became this big thing on social media, and we still have a soft spot for it but we were never the horrible rabid guests. Some of our favorite parts were just chatting with the cast members, and walking around and seeing what had changed with the flowers. when I went to Orlando 3 years ago on vacation my dad and I ended up only going to 1 of the Disney Parks (thinking back we probably could've done Hollywood Studios too but oh well) because I wasn't too interested in going because of the crowds. I suggested doing Magic Kingdom because I remembered seeing a lot of videos on youtube of character interactions and I thought I would enjoy that. But as it turns out pretty much none of the characters roam anymore because there are just way too many people (or with the autograph schemes the park will get more money out of you if you stand in a line for an hour for maybe 30 seconds to talk with Gaston) so we just ended up standing in lines and standing in more lines and I opted not to do any character meets. However we did have a nice long chat with a cast member during supper so I got to talk to someone  Incidentally, we went to Islands of Adventure the following day and it was comparatively dead, despite being the park that was full of rides, we rode that Incredible Hulk ride so many times (they hadn't replaced the Dueling Dragons ride yet otherwise we would have just re-queued all day for that one)
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Jan 18, 2021 21:21
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Space Kablooey posted:I heard that too, and more confusingly, I also heard that you don't hand the cash straight to the teller person, you have to set it on a tray and then the person on the till picks it up. This may be just a thing in mom & pop stores though. Japan is pretty cash-first still but less so than in the past. A common recommendation is still to make sure your hotel takes credit card or carry enough cash to cover the cost of your stay. When I was there in 2019 I traveled fairly broadly and I think the only hotel I hit that didn't take a card was actually a Buddhist temple which used part of its facilities as guest rooms to support the temple. If I was paying for anything except hotels (or buying a camera to replace the one I left in the Hakodate airport) I'd just pay in cash. I did have to make a trip every day or two to 7/11 to get another handful of yen from the ATM. One thing I did realize after a while, it seems much more common in Japan to count out change which just seemed weird to me as an American. It is a little different in yen though because the smallest bill in yen is the 1000 yen bill ($10 in USD) so you end up with a disgusting number of coins if you don't use change. As for the tray thing: Definitely a thing in stores big and small. It's not even a hassle or anything. It just sounds weird to non-Japanese because it's different.
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Jan 18, 2021 21:48
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cash is the payment method of the illiterate and unless you're going to a country where you speak the language that is what you are for the duration try not to travel w/o at least a bit of cash. lots of ways to avoid robbery if you're terribly concerned about that
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Jan 18, 2021 21:52
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bob dobbs is dead posted:cash is the payment method of the illiterate and unless you're going to a country where you speak the language that is what you are for the duration That’s quite an opinion. By that rationale cards are for people who can’t read or count since the only thing you have to do is shove it in the slot or wave it at the reader when prompted and maybe enter a PIN once in a while.
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Jan 18, 2021 21:55
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Americans can avoid international travel robbery with this 1 Weird Trick
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Jan 18, 2021 21:55
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Midjack posted:That’s quite an opinion. By that rationale cards are for people who can’t read or count since the only thing you have to do is shove it in the slot or wave it at the reader when prompted and maybe enter a PIN once in a while. you have to enter into a contract to get a card and to use its features. not w cash the globalized travel credit card brands are almost decent at being usable w/o literacy, but you cant rely on this. ive seen my share of no-english atms bob dobbs is dead fucked around with this message at 22:08 on Jan 18, 2021 |
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Jan 18, 2021 22:06
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i had a corporate dinner at epcot once and it was just ok it was weird riding on world of tomorrow with my boss
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Jan 18, 2021 22:13
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bob dobbs is dead posted:cash is the payment method of the illiterate and unless you're going to a country where you speak the language that is what you are for the duration This just comes down to how cash- or card-heavy the particular country you're visiting happens to be, not your literacy in the local language. If you've used a bunch of native-language card terminals you can probably figure out one in an unfamiliar foreign language. If not, being the apologetically smiling confused obvious foreigner will usually get somebody to work the thing for you. I did a day trip to Seoul during a long layover at ICN, and spent maybe a hundred USD in a bunch of little transactions. I don't speak Korean and the only thing I can do with Hangul is recognize that it's not Chinese or Japanese characters. I never touched any physical won. I don't think it would have been difficult to extend that over a few more days and a hotel stay. I've also done plenty of brief trips to Vancouver without pulling out any Canadian money, but that barely even counts. I've definitely traveled to places where you'd be stupid not to carry at least a little cash on you, partially because you do have to do that to eat in some places, and partially because cops in some countries are brazen about shaking down foreigners for cash bribes on the spot and won't take "gosh, I don't have anything in my wallet" for an answer. But those all come back to specific cultural expectations, not some universal travel requirement. bob dobbs is dead posted:you have to enter into a contract to get a card and to use its features. not w cash How does this connect back to "when you travel you're illiterate in the local language" though? I apply for credit cards in English, then they work wherever there's a payment terminal that takes Visa or Mastercard or whatever. Space Gopher fucked around with this message at 22:29 on Jan 18, 2021 |
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Jan 18, 2021 22:25
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Space Gopher posted:This just comes down to how cash- or card-heavy the particular country you're visiting happens to be, not your literacy in the local language. If you've used a bunch of native-language card terminals you can probably figure out one in an unfamiliar foreign language. If not, being the apologetically smiling confused obvious foreigner will usually get somebody to work the thing for you. what happens when the terminal is giving you an error? what happens if the terminal has weird requirements for ids for stuff? most txns in modern countries have fraud protection which is undergirded by obscure machine learning algorithms: what happens when they start yelling at you?
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Jan 18, 2021 22:37
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bob dobbs is dead posted:what happens when the terminal is giving you an error? what happens if the terminal has weird requirements for ids for stuff? I've had these things happen. They're very rare, but I've done a fair amount of travel. I think I've posted the story where Citi's trash-fire IT tried to get me in trouble in KL. Every time it's happened to me, the issue was resolved with an apologetic smile, then pulling out a different card. I wouldn't do any significant travel (domestic or international) without a couple of credit cards from different banks, ideally on different networks. If a merchant manages to get through everything in your wallet without the system working, it's probably on their end, but at that point they can walk you to an ATM if they have to. Generally, in card-friendly countries, the staff will have seen whatever errors might come up before and know how to work the machine. If you're in a place that caters to tourists or business travelers, they'll also have OK English skills (or at the very least have someone on staff who does). There are places where that doesn't apply, but I'm not trying to say that you should go on a trek through rural Nepal with only credit cards. All I'm saying is that there are some major destinations where an American who doesn't speak the language can get around just fine without a pocketful of cash.
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Jan 18, 2021 23:19
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If anything cards are better if I don't speak the language, I can just jam that card in and buy my coffee and pastries instead of handing over a bill and praying it's enough when you hit the one place that doesn't show the price on your side of the counter. That's my favorite way to feel stupid too. I know numbers and can say or hear some of them but fat chance I'll understand something is 8.65 at subway Cafe transaction speed. It's humbling. Now for real fun, take an atm card and a credit card and have the atm card skimmed on the second day of a ten day trip so your cash is just as much cash as you have for the duration. Now I memorize my cash advance pins too. BWM, using an ATM in Madrid after two guys took too long to use it. Just move on! Find another!
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Jan 18, 2021 23:32
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