He's cashing out

Sign of the times:

Dick Stoner's north store has been robbed twice in two years, so he's decided to do something about it.

Starting today, Stoner's Funstore North, 5511 Coldwater Road, will no longer accept cash, only debit or credit cards and checks. After last Thursday's armed robbery, when the suspect held an employee at gunpoint and tied her hands, Stoner thought about closing the store. But after talking to his customers and son, Stoner decided to stay where he is, but not to keep cash in the store.

“I think this is the best of the two choices,” Stoner said. “I can't have my employees going through that.”

The Fort Wayne office of the Better Business Bureau says no one in that office has heard of any other stores here going to a no-cash model. But across the world, a revolution is going on that has nothing to do with crime (this particular story is from England):

Cash is fast falling out of favour as a method of payment according to a report which predicts that banknotes and coins will be used for fewer than half of all transactions in five years' time.

Even the sight of thirsty pub customers waving tenners at the bar is on the way out as part of the ongoing "payments revolution" characterised by the rise of internet banking and the replacement of cheque books and cash with plastic