“Card-only” signs might be popping up in storefronts around Madison, but at the Dane County Farmers’ Market, cash still reigns supreme — for vendors, at least.
Increasingly, customers are choosing to pay for market items with a credit card. To cater to customers, merchants are trying to adapt by offering more options to pay with credit card or digital payment apps, like Venmo and PayPal. While the added choices are convenient for customers, they often come with steep costs: both payment apps and point-of-sale apps, like Square, charge businesses a service fee.
Cress Spring Bakery owner Jeff Ford — a 29-year veteran of the Dane County Farmers’ Market — partly attributes the trend to the COVID-19 pandemic. A decade ago, he only took cash to the market, he says. Now, around 40% of his customers pay with card…