Americans Use Less Cash During COVID Pandemic
Not wanting to touch money certainly changes the way a consumer will spend. Americans have been using significantly less cash to make purchases over the last year. The motivation doesn’t only come from not wanting to touch the physical bills and coins but, also our shift towards digital payments.
Businesses are now pushing consumers to online retail stores due to lockdowns and also people’s fear of being in public places. According to NCBS.com, 3 out 10 Americans say they don’t make any cash purchases during a typical week. Of course we can also see this happening around the world. Harvard University economist Kenneth Rogoff told Wall Street Journal that the pandemic is speeding up trends that we saw naturally occurring.
Our use of cash is a perfect example. For example cash purchases have already been on the decline for years. They attributed to just 26% of all sales in 2019 and 40% back in 2012. The question remains will see any increase in cash spending when the pandemic is over?
