How often do you hang out at the ATM before visiting your favorite pharmacy? You pull into the parking lot and your wallet is full of cash.

Everyone knows people who go to the pharmacy have money in their pockets, and suddenly walking to the front door feels long.

In Chicago alone, the FBI has reported more than 15,000 serious assaults so far this year. Once you’re in, you’ll mentally calculate your taxes, so you don’t spend more than you bring in. Sound familiar?

Despite the industry’s struggles with banking, cash isn’t always king.

Most people prefer to take out their credit card at the time of purchase and complete it – no extra stops, no worries about being robbed at the door, and less worry about whether the purchase amount is accurate.

This is just the client side.

For retailers, the struggle is even more pronounced. Count every dollar you earn, figure out what you bought with those dollars, and keep the cash in a vault or warehouse until tax time.

Renting an armored vehicle to transport cash offsite can cost between $20-30,000 per month.Did you know you can be fined for paying tax use cash? Penalties vary by state, but they add up quickly.

CEO of CannaTrac Tom Gavin hears about retailers’ plight every day.

“For a while, it was not so long ago, we were talking to a company in California. They cost well over a million dollars a year in taxes — not taxes they had to pay, but in cash fine.”

Until marijuana is federally legal, the challenges of working in cash will remain. For retailers and customers, though, there are some alternatives.

Prepaid gift cards are an option to enhance retailer and customer security. The customer loads the gift card and uses the balance to any retailer that supports the card. Rewards programs provide customers with reward points to use on future purchases. It’s a familiar model, safer than a wad of cash. “It creates a safety feature for people waiting in line. It creates a safety feature for people leaving, and it obviously creates a safety feature for the pharmacy itself,” Gavin said.

For retailers, mobile apps like prepaid gift cards and CannaCard (technically both) offer cheaper alternatives to paper money.

“If you look at retailer Cash out-of-pocket—in shipping, storage, accounting, banking, everything—is staggering. We’ve seen 18-30% of revenue go to these expenses. That’s a significant difference compared to 2.4-5% and 50 cents per transaction,” Gavin said.

Payment process automation also enables retailers to access very valuable data about their customers’ spending habits. What did they buy at other stores that they couldn’t buy at this store?

How do I notify customers of sales or new products?

Depending on the state, CannaCard can answer these questions.in safety, convenience and data, Cash may be losing control of the keys to the kingdom. ?