I finally flipped on digital payments after that power outage last month

Last month we had a three day blackout here in Akron, and I was the guy smugly waving cash at the bodega while everyone else panicked. But then I watched my neighbor use her phone's NFC reader to pay for ice at the gas station and realized I was the one stuck. She showed me how the whole system still worked without the grid, just on backup batteries and cellular networks. That made me think about all the times I'd fumbled with change or worried about carrying enough bills. Now I'm not saying cash is dead, but I finally get why people push for digital... the convenience is hard to argue once you see it work in a crisis. Has anyone else had that moment where a disaster changed your view on this stuff?

2 comments

2 Comments

riverdavis13d ago

Haha yeah that was literally me with my Venmo balance last year during a hurricane - thought i was hot stuff with my emergency cash stash until the atm lines were 2 hours long and everyone else was just tapping their phones at the generator-powered food truck. kinda humbling watching a 16 year old pay for their gas with a watch while i'm counting out wrinkled fives. but hey at least my cash made a nice firestarter when we ran out of dry kindling, try doing that with a credit card

nguyen.angela13d agoTop Commenter

$50 in cash got me a single bag of ice and a bruised ego watching @riverdavis buy a whole generator with their phone.