Anyone notice network shutdowns?

[dreamin_disney]

I went to Walgreens not to long ago and their network shut down. Computers and registers were down. I was next in line for my Rx so I walked up to the counter. The lights in the store flickered and you hear system shut down. Lights were still on but customers were told network shut down and they couldn’t process anything. We were told they didn’t know how long it would be and to check back in an hour. Workers looked shocked and kinda like what do we do now.

Today I went to my credit union. I haven’t been in there in years , maybe 8 years. My job has a program where employees can have money deducted into savings like Xmas or summer saver. Now that I got more hours and making more money, I decided to go in and have more money deducted into my summer saver. I walked in and the workers were walking around kinda confused. I asked do I need to sign in or get in line. I was told network/shut down. They can’t access any of the computers, accounts, ATM and coin machine tickets couldn’t be processed.

Got me thinking how much cash should I have at home in a safe place for emergencies , or in cases where just need cash for non emergency items and everyday cash to carry?
I normally use credit cards and pay off every month. I recently started carrying a $20 bill, but probably should carry smaller bills.

what do you do?
How much cash in house for emergency?
How much cash in house for none emergency?
How much cash to carry daily?
what bills?

before Covid I would cash in all my coins but now I hold onto it.

 

[lanejudy]

I always try to have some cash on me, or on-hand at home. Periodically I'll withdraw $100 or so, more if traveling or I know we'll have cash expenses (attending high school sports only accepts cash admission). However, if the store's computers have an issue, most likely the registers won't work for cash either. So I'm not sure if that was your thought -- to carry cash in case of "network shut down" at a store -- or if you were just considering having cash in your pocket.

 

[pigletto]

Yes I’m noticing them more and more over the last few years. I will leave politics out of it so won’t get into they why’s.
I think a bank or a businesses job is to make us think our money and info is as safe as possible and I think they try but clearly it’s not bullet proof so I’ve wondered about using cash more lately.

I keep up to $500 in the house. This is all I really want to keep in the house and should cover most things.

I only keep change in my wallet and use my card for everything. I’m going to try to switch to cash for groceries etc to see if I spend less so I’ll take it out before I shop. Maybe $200 in my wallet. I suspect I will stick to the budget better when it’s cash.

 

[mistysue]

It's been happening for decades. Any business with a point of sale or electronic system is going to have outages, and every time everyone acts like it's never happened before - because it's not constant.
When they start acting like it's just another Tuesday, then it's a sign of needing to be concerned.

 

[Anthony1971]

It is very normal for a power serge or flicker to cause a computer shut down. If a store has a POS system this will cause the computers to shut down and they will need to reboot. We have started using battery backups for this reason as it has been happening more frequent in recent in fact in the 25 years I have been here I can't recall our systems ever going down in past years with stores in 6 states.. The battery back up only gives you a few minutes but will allow the POS and internet to not have to reset. The bad news is if a system does go down you will not be able to pay cash or credit card unless the store is willing to calculate a purchase by hand and you are ok without a receipt.
Yes it is possible for an entire network to go down with the banking system or credit cards that does not mean your money is lost it means you will not have access to it. Keeping cash around is always a good idea, I would base an amount on groceries and gas. Cyber attacks are very real and not uncommon for some large networks to go down for short times overnight to update the security to prevent real damage been getting a lot of these notifications lately.

 

[tvguy]

I always have $300 on hand. All the gas station credit card networks went off line here about 2 months ago for 5 hours and people with no cash were frantically trying to find a place to buy gas. I had no problem since I had cash.
And I try and support small businesses.......like the locally owned hamburger place, fish and chips place and mini-mart. Many have started charging 50 cents extra for any debit or credit card transactions, and to be honest, I'm cheap and don't want to pay extra.

 

[DLgal]

Having cash will not help when a store's entire system is down. Its not like stores have manual cash registers anymore. If their communication system is down, they can't do anything.

We were at Disneyland yesterday and my son wanted a Wetzels Pretzel. They were closed due to their POS system being down. I asked if I could pay cash. Nope. I figured they wouldn't be able to do it but I asked. They remained closed for several hours. All those pretzels were just sitting there. So sad.

 

[tvguy]

Having cash will not help when a store's entire system is down. Its not like stores have manual cash registers anymore. If their communication system is down, they can't do anything.

We were at Disneyland yesterday and my son wanted a Wetzels Pretzel. They were closed due to their POS system being down. I asked if I could pay cash. Nope. I figured they wouldn't be able to do it but I asked. They remained closed for several hours. All those pretzels were just sitting there. So sad.

Fortunately most of the mom and pop places I go have their POS independent of the cash register. So no issue there.
I remember as a kid in the 1960's being in the grocery store when the power went out. No problem even with electric cash registers, the clerk would just pull the hand crank out of the drawer under the cash register, and turn it to ring up the sale.

 

[DLgal]

Fortunately most of the mom and pop places I go have their POS independent of the cash register. So no issue there.
I remember as a kid in the 1960's being in the grocery store when the power went out. No problem even with electric cash registers, the clerk would just pull the hand crank out of the drawer under the cash register, and turn it to ring up the sale.

The mom and pop places I go to (very few) have all graduated to computerized payment systems and most are electronic payments only at this point. Having cash on site is risky. I only go to one place that prefers cash and that is my hairdresser. But, he uses a portable swipe machine also for credit card payments if that's how you want to pay.

 

[tvguy]

The mom and pop places I go to (very few) have all graduated to computerized payment systems and most are electronic payments only at this point. Having cash on site is risky. I only go to one place that prefers cash and that is my hairdresser. But, he uses a portable swipe machine also for credit card payments if that's how you want to pay.

Yeah, my Barber is cash only, no plastic of any kind, but they have multiple signs up in the shop. However, I suspect almost 100% of their customer base are regulars so they are aware. The state ordered Barber shops close for 6 months during the pandemic, and since then they have been operating on an appointment only system. They never took appointments before, they were 100% walk in.
As for risk with cash, certainly there is some, but the guy who owns the gourmet burger place we go to says the credit card fees really cut into his profits, so if asked, he tells customers he prefers they pay in cash, but he does take plastic. And he has said taking plastic is not risk free either. If a customer uses a stolen card that isn't flagged in the system yet, HE is the one who ultimately loses that money.

 

[DLgal]

Yeah, my Barber is cash only, no plastic of any kind, but they have multiple signs up in the shop. However, I suspect almost 100% of their customer base are regulars so they are aware. The state ordered Barber shops close for 6 months during the pandemic, and since then they have been operating on an appointment only system. They never took appointments before, they were 100% walk in.
As for risk with cash, certainly there is some, but the guy who owns the gourmet burger place we go to says the credit card fees really cut into his profits, so if asked, he tells customers he prefers they pay in cash, but he does take plastic. And he has said taking plastic is not risk free either. If a customer uses a stolen card that isn't flagged in the system yet, HE is the one who ultimately loses that money.

Well, it is a business owners responsibility to make sure a credit card user is the actual owner of that card. No one does it, but that's the price you pay for not checking ID.

 

[tvguy]

Well, it is a business owners responsibility to make sure a credit card user is the actual owner of that card. No one does it, but that's the price you pay for not checking ID.

I was surprised the credit card company didn't cover that loss, I would think that is part of the service they provide for their fee.

 

[mistysue]

I was surprised the credit card company didn't cover that loss, I would think that is part of the service they provide for their fee.

If that were the case, store owners would steal cards and ring up massive fraudulent purchases on purpose. Part of the agreement is that the merchant is absolutely responsible for verifying who is using a card.

 

[pigletto]

Yeah, my Barber is cash only, no plastic of any kind, but they have multiple signs up in the shop. However, I suspect almost 100% of their customer base are regulars so they are aware. The state ordered Barber shops close for 6 months during the pandemic, and since then they have been operating on an appointment only system. They never took appointments before, they were 100% walk in.
As for risk with cash, certainly there is some, but the guy who owns the gourmet burger place we go to says the credit card fees really cut into his profits, so if asked, he tells customers he prefers they pay in cash, but he does take plastic. And he has said taking plastic is not risk free either. If a customer uses a stolen card that isn't flagged in the system yet, HE is the one who ultimately loses that money.

This is another reason we are going back to cash. In Canada the merchants are now allowed to pass on that fee to customers. It’s good for the smaller owners as their profit margins are small to begin with. But I’m not keen to pay more and the fees are more than I would earn for using a rewards card, so I’ll just use cash.

 

[DLgal]

This is another reason we are going back to cash. In Canada the merchants are now allowed to pass on that fee to customers. It’s good for the smaller owners as their profit margins are small to begin with. But I’m not keen to pay more and the fees are more than I would earn for using a rewards card, so I’ll just use cash.

Ew, really? I would not patronize any business that passed that fee to me as a customer. They make way more in gross sales by accepting credit cards than not. Its a greedy move by a business owner to do that. Accept credit cards or don't, but don't make the customer pay for your choice.

 

[tvguy]

They make way more in gross sales by accepting credit cards than not. Its a greedy move by a business owner to do that. Accept credit cards or don't, but don't make the customer pay for your choice.

The owner of the specialty cheese shop we frequent says she pays $5,000 a month in credit card fees. Going into 2023 she is weighing whether to charge to take credit cards or go cash only. When we were there in November, and she was leaning cash only at that point.
Why shouldn't you pay for the services you are using at a store? I don't want to subsidize your decision.

 

[mistysue]

The owner of the specialty cheese shop we frequent says she pays $5,000 a month in credit card fees. Going into 2023 she is weighing whether to charge to take credit cards or go cash only. When we were there in November, and she was leaning cash only at that point.
Why shouldn't you pay for the services you are using at a store? I don't want to subsidize your decision.

That's a crazy amount of sales. Those rates cap out under 3%, and usually go down as they charge more. Even at 3%, that means the cheese show is selling $167,000 in cheese per month.
While I get your overall point, one of my biggest pet peeves is how often small businesses exaggerate costs like this to make arguments.

 

[tvguy]

That's a crazy amount of sales. Those rates cap out under 3%, and usually go down as they charge more. Even at 3%, that means the cheese show is selling $167,000 in cheese per month.
While I get your overall point, one of my biggest pet peeves is how often small businesses exaggerate costs like this to make arguments.

Not sure what she is going to decide. And guessing she marks up her products 40% that's only $66,800 profit per month before salaries, rent, insurance, utilities, etc. I rarely get out of her store without spending $100. She doesn't just sell cheese, she sells craft beers, wine and olive oil......all pretty pricey stuff.
We have a neighborhood bakery and many have given the owner of that shop a hard time for refusing to even consider taking plastic saying he is losing sales . For him being cash only is kind of a way to keep the business at the size he feels comfortable operating at. He says he sells out every day some times hours before his scheduled closing time, and he doesn't have the facilities to produce more baked goods. So he questions how he is losing sales since he is selling everything he can make.

 

[DLgal]

Not sure what she is going to decide. And guessing she marks up her products 40% that's only $66,800 profit per month before salaries, rent, insurance, utilities, etc. I rarely get out of her store without spending $100. She doesn't just sell cheese, she sells craft beers, wine and olive oil......all pretty pricey stuff.

Sounds like a reasonable profit after expenses. Not sure why small business owners expect to be millionaires...

 

[tvguy]

Sounds like a reasonable profit after expenses. Not sure why small business owners expect to be millionaires...

Unfortunately, that is BEFORE expenses.