40 branches in Germany
Technik chain Gravis no longer accepts cash
01/16/2023 09:44 am
The Germans and their love of cash: the story has one more facet. The technology chain Gravis, best known as an important retailer for Apple products, will not accept notes or coins in the future. The demand is simply no longer great, criticism is seen calmly.
The German technology chain Gravis, which cooperates closely with Apple, has not accepted cash payments since Monday. As the company confirmed when asked by “Spiegel”, this applies to all branches – there are 40 nationwide – and regardless of the purchase value. That would mean: Even if you only want to buy an accessory from Gravis for a few euros, coins and bills from your wallet won’t help you in the future.
According to the newspaper report, the company explained that the proportion of cash payments had been “negligible” for around two years. Only a “small one-digit percentage” of customers still pay cash at Gravis today.
The chain also emphasized that its decision was made after “a successful test phase in selected stores based on the above-average acceptance of cashless payments”. Cashless payments are “simple, secure, fast from the customer’s point of view – and have long since been learned”. You go with the step “actively follow the path of our customers”.
traders benefit
According to “Spiegel”, there is not only an orientation to customer behavior behind it, but also business calculations. “For us as a retailer, cashless payment is cheaper, easier and it enables faster processes,” Gravis summarizes his own advantages. The company can keep its prices stable for longer for customers.
Gravis, on the other hand, does not fear legal trouble: the legal situation provides “that legal tender can be excluded if information is provided about it”. The company explained that this is done by means of information in the stores, “in the form of clearly visible displays in the checkout area” and via the General Terms and Conditions (GTC).
When asked about possible customer dissatisfaction, Gravis replies: Be prepared “that there may still be occasional need for explanation at the beginning”, but assume “that most of our customers can understand the advantages of cashless payment”.
Germans love their cash
Cash is an emotionally charged topic, particularly in Germany, a country where cash is still used comparatively often. With a company like Gravis, an argument in favor of cash payment would be that it has not been a problem to buy technical devices and accessories anonymously with this means of payment.
And of course paying cash as one of several payment methods makes customers more flexible. Last spring, for example, card payments were temporarily no longer possible at numerous retailers due to technical problems with a certain, widely used payment terminal.
So far, you could pay for every product at Gravis in cash, they say. With its 40 branches, the company is one of the best-known German technology dealers and is present in Hamburg, Cologne and Berlin, for example. According to its own statements, it is “Germany’s largest authorized Apple retail chain” and the “largest certified Apple service partner” in all of Europe. The company belongs to Freenet AG.