Discrimination’: Disturbing trend creeping into major supermarkets   



News.com.au
June 15, 2025

A disturbing trend has been slowly creeping into our major supermarkets – now Australians are calling it out.

If you’ve recently tried to use a crisp tenner to pay for your weekly shop, only to be met with a card-only screen and a quiet sense of rejection, you’re not alone.

Shoppers across the country are noticing a subtle but significant change at their local Coles and Woolworths stores – cash payment options at self-serve check-outs are quietly disappearing.

Slowly but surely, notes and coins are being nudged out of the equation, replaced with slick tap-and-go terminals.

Both supermarket giants do still accept cash but trying to find a self-serve machine that lets you insert a note may feel like a scavenger hunt.

Many stores now offer just one or two cash-enabled kiosks – often tucked at the far end of the self-serve row.

News.com.au visited three major supermarkets across Sydney’s inner west – two Woolworths stores and one Coles – and found that paying with cash is becoming more difficult than ever for those who prefer to skip the card tap.

At the first Woolworths location in Balmain, only two out of 14 self-serve check-outs accepted cash, with the rest card-only.

Only two out of 14 check-outs accept cash at this inner-west Woolworths.

The supermarket giant has introduced new signage to make it easier for customers to identify those that accept cash.

For this location, those that accepted cash were wrapped in green while those that were card only donned a slick black wrap.


A second Woolworths store in Leichhardt painted a slightly different picture, with six out 18 self-serve machines still accepting cash – a small comfort for those not ready to go fully digital.

These check-outs were wrapped in a neon green as oppose to the card-only black wrapped check-outs – making them easily visible to cash-using customers.

Cash-accepting machines were wrapped in neon green at one Woolworths location.

Others were wrapped in a darker green.

But Coles wasn’t so accommodating.

At Birkenhead Point Coles, none of the self-serve check-outs accepted cash at all. Customers who wanted to pay with notes or coins had to queue at the limited assisted check-outs, which had no staff working them.

When asked by news.com.au where cash can be used a Coles staff member replied, “at the assisted check-outs, but no one is working them right now.”

Critics of the shift argue that moving away from cash risks marginalising older Australians, low income earners, and those who simply prefer not to rely on entirely digital payments.

This Coles offered no cash self-check-outs.

Melbourne based financial journalist and campaign manager of Cash Welcome, Jason Bryce says Coles and Woolworths are “actively discriminating against cash users.”

“I want to use that word. because I know that the supermarkets actively discriminate against the millions of Australians who use cash,” he told news.com.au.   

“I get emails regularly from people who have complained to Coles and Woolies and to the ACCC, RBA, Human Rights Commission because cash users are forced to wait for 10 minutes for a cash accepting terminal to become free. Meanwhile the card users sail straight through.”

Mr Bryce says the longest he has waited to pay with cash at his local Coles supermarket was upwards of 40 minutes.

“These people want to get rid of cash. And we all know that everybody needs cash at some stage, whether you rely on it day to day or just occasionally,” he added. 

The two cash-accepting machines at this location were tucked at the end.

“They’ve got to do more than accept cash. Cash has got to be equal to the other payment options. All terminals should accept cash and card.”

Additionally, Australians are spending an estimated $140 annually in card surcharges and fees which Mr Bryce believes is actually “much more than that.”

The Federal government has already announced plans to ban debit card surcharges from January 1 2026, in a move aimed at putting money back into consumers’ pockets.

While the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) is still reviewing the proposal, initial modelling suggests that removing the often-despised fees could save consumers a whopping $500 million annually.

Surcharges, which are commonly tacked onto small purchases at cafes, retail stores and online check-outs, have long drawn the ire of shoppers.

What happen to the Albo Labo government promises to ensure cash was still legal tender?

Daves2017 wrote on Jun 15^th, 2025 at 5:36pm:


i wasn't aware cash had been made illegal

Obvious solution is to not use the facility, you don’t work for Coles or Woolworths so why do the checkouts’ job?
By using the self checkouts system you are lessening the number of jobs available for other people.

For Labor supporters and others of a social concern using self checkouts is akin to scabbing.

Sir Eoin O Fada wrote on Jun 15^th, 2025 at 7:00pm:


Yep.

I never, ever use the self-serve checkouts at Coles and Woollies.

what's airbus doing?

greggerypeccary wrote on Jun 15^th, 2025 at 7:17pm:

You are a discriminating Racist!
Those auto-machine checkouts are no different to Coles and Woolworths employing Palestinians and illegal Mexicans.

 

And signs are popping up about being cashless. This at doctors.