If in some natural disaster situation a store can get a generator up and running to keep and sell some goods, let’s consider two different scenarios. One where

If in some natural disaster situation a store can get a generator up and running to keep and sell some goods, let’s consider two different scenarios. One where they’re relying on good old cash to sell the stuff, and one where they’ve managed to get a network connection up and running and are taking digital payments. In the cash scenario, customers who have cash in hand can buy stuff; now the store is running low on goods, but they have a pile of money in a safe. So they need to take that money to a wholesaler to buy more goods to sell. If they sell a bunch of goods for digital payments, the money’s all sitting in their online account. When they want to restock they can pay the wholesaler digitally and have stuff delivered. It’s almost like there’s a reason we invented banks.