ATM's at the Markets

A number of local markets have begun bringing in mobile cash machines for customers to use. The markets don't make any money from the fees but their logic is that, because not all vendors accept credit cards, having the ATM's on site will facilitate spending.

I realize I'm atypical, but I've never used an ATM in my life. I also rarely use credit cards for day-to-day purchases. I tried accepting credit cards one year at my booth, but I found that it took 3 times as long to process a transaction (despite what the commercials say) and people kept wanting to use cards for $1.50 and $2 purchases.

I'm not sure whether the cash machines at the markets have actually helped my sales, but I do find them distasteful. They feel like a symptom of the kind of thinking that created the industrialized food system in the first place: offering convenience in ways that aren't in our best interests when you consider the long term and the big picture.

I want people to spend their money at the market instead of the mall, but I don't want them to spend their money at the market in the same thoughtless, reckless way they spend it at the mall.