Is it just ME?

Or are shops that don’t use cash infuriating?

IS IT just me, or is there something infuriating about modish High Street businesses who smugly declare themselves ‘cashless’?

A health food chain, ever more small cafes and even a few shops are now proudly declaring they have moved on from the fuddy-duddy world of coins and notes, which served mankind faithfully for 5,000 years before the arrival of the internet.

Some businesses even sneer at cards that aren’t contactless: they feel nothing will do except a casual waft of your plastic over the little screen, sending invisible money through the air. The bleep has replaced the friendly old jingle of cash.

You can see why one-man buses went card-only: it’s safer for the driver and speeds up boarding. But High Street services are just being arrogant. There

Offer them solid money and they wince as if you’re trying to pay with a necklace of cowrie shells

are independent coffee shops that will make you feel like a barbarian if you try to pay without bothering the internet.

Offer them solid money, even correct change, and they wince and shake their heads, as if you’d tried to pay for your coffee with a necklace of cowrie shells or a freshly slaughtered chicken.

They’re not doing it for our convenience. The 29-year-old owner of one cafe in South East London said it saves staffing hours because workers don’t have to cash up — ‘a real faff’ — and he never has to take money to the bank.

His young customers are fine with it — ‘No one really cared.’ But anyone without a bank card will go thirsty. Or, at best, be embarrassed.

It is a very modern idea to consider that the customer, rather than being ‘ always right’, is actually a bit of a pest.