A weekly ritual or once in a while treat, takeaways were one of the few services available to the public during the strictest period of lockdown measures in the U.K. Scots spent one billion pounds on takeaways in 2018, and with many turning to takeaways during periods of lockdown, this figure is only set to increase in 2020.
As a consequence, “some business owners in Scotland are calling on their customers to pay with cash - saying the hidden costs from card payments are “crippling” them.” Speaking to a variety of restauranteurs in Edinburgh, many business owners stated they were losing profits due to the astronomical cost of contactless transactions. The cost of card payments, known as merchant service charges, can see small businesses paying around 0.25-0.35% for debit cards and 0.7-0.9% for credit cards. The fees, according to the interview participants, have taken away so much profit, the hours of working were barely worth the gain:
