Took my brother who's in town from Los Angeles, California to our local Aldi grocery store.
(Just me in front of a pretty car. Unrelated )
First thing, he couldn't believe the prices. They sell a dozen eggs for 45 cents. You read that right. I don't know how they can get eggs for so cheap. Those chickens are either slaves or complete sellouts. The eggs don't taste very good but they still are ridiculously cheap protein.
He picked up some wine. I hope it's not terrible. Sometimes cheap wines can taste like the house Italian dressing at Milano's Italian Restaurant. It's good as dressing but...
We picked up some quality chocolate so we can make 'smores over our campfire with his boys and our son. They've probably never seen a campfire before in real life. They live in a big city with more things they are not allowed to do than things they are allowed to do.
When we headed for the check out I was delighted to hear that the systems were down. That's not even sarcasm. I needed something to write about.
Immediately following my remarking that I had never seen such a long checkout line at Aldi, a cashier went down the line informing the customers that they couldn't do any card transactions. Some customers were leaving to go get cash at the nearest cash machine. Others were just abandoning their carts and walking out angry.
We had cash so we were herded over into the very short line and out of the store very quickly.
The number one reason for me suggesting that cash is still king is the convenience. I firmly believe that a twenty dollar bill is worth less than twenty one dollar bills. How often have you tried to pay and been asked for something smaller than a twenty because the store was low on change money? It's easier to tip and to pay out small amounts of money. You can pay a bill and just walk out without waiting on the waitress to come back with a receipt of change. Small bills make it easy to chip in for takeout or buying something quickly at the farmer's market. Not every transaction should require an electronic device to transact or even the need for a receipt.
So whatever you call it bread, cabbage, moolah, greenbacks, bucks, benjamins, cashola, currency, whatever you call it... It always good to keep some in your pocket.
We don't buy eggs, we grow our own. Our taste like butter. But they are $4 a dozen if you're in the hood.