4 ms·

Moving the cash from even a free-standing ATM to the till seems unlikely to be a net improvement in security.

• isostatic 9y ago
  The till probably has under £500 in, probably less. The ATM probably 20 times that. By offering cash back you're reducing the amount of cash kept in store, reducing the chance of being robbed (less worthwhile). By putting an ATM in store you're increasing the cash on premises, and in your tills (as people use the ATM rather than cash back) Cash back is a win-win for stores.
  • mseebach 9y ago
    Then either the ATM had 20x too much cash in it, or the store will be unable to satisfy 19/20 requests for cash back? People withdrawing cash from the ATM (often incurring a non-trivial fee) to pay in the same store, rather than just paying on card, seems to be a marginal case and indeed inferior to card payment.
    • tialaramex 9y ago
      ATMs are often refilled only every day or two, whereas the store's registers are replenished periodically, often at shift changes or when demand increases. Perhaps more importantly the register also takes _in_ cash as unrelated customers pay with cash.
      • mseebach 9y ago
        Cash in an ATM is orders of magnitude safer than cash in a till, most significantly for the store staff as less cash invites fewer (traumatising, dangerous) robberies. When I worked in a convenience store 20 years ago, we’d dump cash into a safe through a mail slot every time the cash in the till rose over a certain amount (the register computer would show a red bar with a message to this effect), and we’d routinely have to turn down requests for all but trivial amounts of cash back for this reason.
  • HeyLaughingBoy 9y ago
    The store usually has nothing to lose. In most cases, the ATM in small stores isn't owned by the store: the ATM owner pays them a fee for having it there.