A Volkswagen sedan rammed into the front of a Nando’s in Barkly Street in Footscray, in Melbourne, on Friday morning at around 2.15am, as the driver fled the scene
Melbourne: Stolen car crashes into Nando’s with message on door
A stolen car emblazoned with “we don’t accept cash here” graffiti smashed into a Nando’s restaurant after the company decided to go cashless.
The Volkswagen sedan rammed into the front of a Nando’s in Barkly Street in Footscray, in Melbourne, Australia, on Friday morning at around 2.15am. It was thought to be prompted by the company’s decision to stop accepting cash in May. Victoria Police are searching for the driver who fled the scene shortly after. No injuries were reported and nothing was stolen from the chain.
A police spokesperson said: “Emergency services were called to a fast-food restaurant on Barkly Street, Footscray about 2.15am after reports a car had into the front of the building. On arrival no person was present and a stolen white Volkswagen sedan was still on scene. At this stage investigators do not believe entry was gained to the building and the exact circumstances are still to be established.”
Locals had criticised Nando’s decision to move to cashless with many people still preferring cash.. Despite this, Nando’s tried to reassure customers with a sign inside the store which read: “Sorry, guess we’re part of the New World Order now. Just kidding. Card payments mean we spend less time counting coins and more time perfecting your chicken.”
The decision has not gone well with customers taking to Reddit criticising the decision.”‘I understand it’s a business’s right to refuse payment types. As someone who mostly uses card, I still think this is a really stupid move and will be taking out elsewhere”, one person said. “Begs the question if card is so much more convenient for business why are they still allowed surcharges,” another commented.
“Maybe I’m a boomer-ish gen-Z member, but it’s pretty ironic that legal tender is slowly becoming something only useful for buying non-legal items,” a third wrote. Although there were some people supportive of the decision claiming customers who want to pay with cash slow down others.
“Not only does [cash] it make you vulnerable to being robbed… it always takes so long if you have to count coins and makes people behind wait,” one said.
‘The problem with cash is that cash handling, management and transportation is a business and ironically an increasingly unprofitable one,” a second added. In 2020, Nandos confirmed that it had moved to cashless payments following the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Like many food businesses, we’ve moved to cashless payments to limit the handling of money in our restaurants,” it said on X. “This supports our heightened hygiene protocols in the wake of COVID-19 and is an extra measure to protect both our customers and our staff.”