Coca-Cola fans are up in arms over a major change to some vending machines that stock the popular soft drink.
Sharing on a prominent Facebook group, a worker revealed how the vending machine at her place of business now only accepts credit and debit cards.
A sign placed on the front of the cubicle reads: “The Coke machine is now a cashless machine as of 12/06/24.
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“It will take your credit card or bank card linked to your Cheque/Savings account.”
The purported employee, who shared the post on a Facebook group promoting the use of cash, wrote: “Bloke put this on the machine at work today.”
Another Coke lover has told 7NEWS.com.au how she was recently charged an extra 25 cents when using her card to pay for a can of Coke No Sugar.
“The vending machine at my work accepts cash and cards,” she explained.
“But when I went to pay with cards, the price went up by 25 cents. It’s just wrong.
“I understand that there are minimal surcharges with some card purchases, but I’m sorry — 25 cents is criminal.”
The worker’s initial Reddit post sparked a huge response on the Facebook page, with other pro-cash advocated disappointed in the changes to some vending machines.
“It’s illegal,” said one.
Another added: “Put a ‘Cash is King’ sticker on it and drive it broke.”
A third wrote: “Put a sign on the machine telling him why you can no longer support his business.”
One more responded: “I don’t use anything that is cashless.”
Said another: “Don’t use it, unplug it.”
Another business owner said they’d encountered issues when they had a card-only machine at their premises.
“This is quite silly,” the wrote. “We all know if that tap screen gets damaged, even slightly, they don’t work at all.
“I inadvertently put sticky tape on one I owned in a laundromat and even though I took it off immediately the reader was stuffed.
“I have now mended my ways and only have coin machines.”
Cash in decline
The use of cash as a form of payment has been in decline in recent years as more and more options for digital transactions emerge.
Macquarie University lecturer in anthropology Chris Vasantkumar said there was an increase in Australians “cash hoarding” based on withdrawal and RBA data, indicating it wasn’t likely Australia would transition to being entirely cashless.
But cash was not the favoured method of doing business, with the Reserve Bank of Australia finding cash transactions dropped to 13 per cent in late 2022 from 69 per cent in 2007, he said.
“It’s a question of confidence for lots of folks. People get nervous about the digital infrastructure when they see examples of it going down,” Vasantkumar said.
“It’s my sense that most Australians would be happy to have cash there as a back-up.”
Vasantkumar said there were examples in which countries went cashless too soon and met with pushback from the public.
In Australia, two in five people (41 per cent) reported being “extremely concerned” about the disappearance of cash, according to data from payment technology company Waave.
A lack of trust in banking institutions and financial services, a fear of exacerbating economic inequality, and fear of rising fees are all major issues for the 1080 Australians surveyed by the company earlier this year.