On Christmas Eve Ebenezer Scrooge, owner of a large but unfashionable department store, dreamt he was visited by three ghosts. The first, let's call him the Ghost of Christmas Past, showed him how his store used to be in the run up to Christmas. At first Scrooge was pleased with what he saw. 'Ah those were the days. Look, they're almost queuing out of the door!'. The ghost smiled knowingly 'But listen to them Scrooge, they're not happy.

Some have had to stand in line for ages and the staff are stressed. They're trying their best but it's not easy dealing with tired and agitated customers.' Scrooge was annoyed. 'It was a profitable year,' the ghost continued, 'why didn't you invest in new technology that would have shortened the queues and made your cashiers' lives easier? It would soon have paid for itself and boosted the bottom line!'

I know what you mean said Scrooge, but I was told a cashless society was imminent. Why waste my time and money investing in such payments?

The second ghost showed Ebenezer how his store was currently operating. 'It seems less busy' admitted Scrooge. 'It must be because they're all shopping from home these days'. 'Only about 17 percent of transactions,’ said the ghost, ‘and the other stores look busy enough. What have you done Ebenezer?' Scrooge hesitated, 'I took advice. We made a video and were going to be part of a new movement. Nobody uses cash anymore, so we moved to digital only. It was the new thing.' 'But didn't they tell you that over a third of all payments still involve cash?' 'Of course not, I'm no fool, they were very convincing'. Cash, he mused, humbug!

By the time the third apparition appeared Scrooge had convinced himself it was just a bad dream and he had made the right business decisions. 'What have you got for me now?' 'We're going to look at 2027'. 'Ah said Scrooge there's the store. Still there. But what's that sign on the door? Closed for business, on Christmas Eve? What is this madness? The other stores are open'.

‘Ah,’ said the ghost, ‘there's been an outage, bit of a glitch. Don't worry. It'll be ok tomorrow.’

'But that's Christmas day! And how are the other stores coping?' The ghost smiled, 'Didn't I tell you? They're processing cash payments. Look, happy customers and no queues'.

'Nonsense said Scrooge. It's 2027 and we're a cashless society, digital payments or nothing.' Again, the ghost smiled. 'Well, no actually, 16 percent of payments still involve cash, that's 6.4 billion transactions. People seem to like choice and even those who prefer digital fall back on cash when things go wrong.'

Scrooge woke up suddenly. 'I've made a big mistake'. He reached for his phone but had forgotten to charge it. He got out of bed, threw on his clothes and ran all the way to his store manager's house.

'Merry Christmas Mr Scrooge!' 'No time for that Cratchitt. We need to be competitive and prepared for what the future will bring. Get on the phone to GLORY straightaway!'

This was indeed a new Scrooge, prepared to meet life's challenges and full of the Christmas spirit. 

'And while you're at it here's a fifty pound note. Send Tim out to buy a turkey'