Tradeoff: No cash but faster lines as restaurants forgo cash

NEW YORK (AP) — The lunchtime lines at Dos Toros move faster these days — customers don't fumble for bills or coins, and employees don't make change. Since around New Year's, the Mexican food chain has been cashless.

"For the vast majority of customers, there's no reaction at all; they're already paying with their cards. And the significant majority of cash customers don't have any problem with it either," says co-owner Leo Kremer, who has 14 stores in New York and one in Chicago.

If people do try to use cash, employees explain the reasons for the change — faster service for customers, saving the business time and money.

The trend toward cashless small and mid-sized businesses is fairly new. Many of the companies adopting the policy are restaurants with menus and prices more upscale than fast-food chains, but service that aims to be almost as quick as a McDonald's or Subway. During a busy lunch hour with customers lined up at ordering stations and cashiers, forgoing cash means faster transactions.

Many business owners would rather be cashless. Cash actually costs money — banks charge fees for cash deposits and to handle coins. If businesses take in enough cash to justify pickups by armored car services, that's another cost, and given that restaurants can be a target for holdups, not one that can be eliminated. And counting and checking cash and preparing it for deposit takes up time a manager could spend with staff or customers.

"We feel a manager's time is so valuable, and it was being spent on what is only 10 percent of our revenue," says Kremer, who also says revenue at Dos Toros hasn't been hurt by the transition.

Millions of consumers use little or no cash. In a survey released last month by the financial services company Capital One, only 21 percent of 2,000 people questioned said cash was their most common way to pay for things.

But going cashless isn't a slam-dunk. Some