The Rise and Fall of the Cash Railway(atlasobscura.com) |
The Rise and Fall of the Cash Railway(atlasobscura.com) |
When I go to offices I feel that a lot of that subject matters (physical stuff) has merely been replaced by people moving data around (copying entries into a spreadsheet, for example, or writing reports). That's what we'll get rid of next and again, I believe it will be through a process of abstraction.
Create a link between people, capable of carrying messages (or dynamic entertainments), and hijinks and love will follow.
The article says cash carriers went away due to 1. pneumatic tubes, and 2. automatic counter registers. However, pneumatic tubes isn't much of an answer, because that's just a different way of rapidly transporting cash, and those are now gone as well.
So presumably the real answer has to be these "automatic counter registers". But the article never elaborates on what those are. How does an automatic counter register differ from earlier cash registers, and why was it that without them one needed a rapid cash transport method?
A decline in robberies probably also helped. Department stores like Sears and Macy's now have distributed cash registers around the store, sometimes in low traffic areas, but I've never heard of them getting robbed.
These salespeople probably weren't paid well, or identified well, so the shipowner couldn't trust them. Instead, for every payment, they need to get a receipt from a central place, which prevents any dishonesty.
> So presumably the real answer has to be these "automatic counter registers". But the article never elaborates on what those are.
I'm not precisely sure, but having worked in POS systems I can hazard a guess: systems which record a cumulative total of transactions, linked to the employee working the register. Someone will clock in, count the contents of the drawer (A), ring up some stuff over a shift (B), then cash up at the end (C); and A + B should equal C.
This still doesn't obviate the need to move cash around (which is also entered on the register), and some supermarkets still have pneumatic systems.
Less than a decade ago they were still in use in stores in the UK and I'm not sure what would have replaced them.
A cash register slowly fills with money and there's theft risk. It's more secure to transport cash via the tube than to have staff members walking around with hundreds or thousands of pounds to the back of the store and up to a cash office.