You make an interesting point about the black market there and it makes a lot of sense. Everyone is out to get ahead I guess. It's less of a thing here though and so I think it's more about trying to prevent staff-theft, record keeping and covid fear. That last seems laughable though. Of course, the government love card payment as they can track everything through the bank feeds. Banks here require our Tax File Numbers to open accounts.

Quite a few places have card only signs, as did this place I went to, some very big national retailers too...I tend to avoid them. It would have been easy to pay with my debit card and walk away but I decided to do an experiment. She stuck to her guns and so did I. 🙄