The ease of payment along with the prevalence of smartphones and the lingering effects of Covid have caused digital payment to become very widespread. Most people have some sort of digital payment app on their phones, whether that be Apple Pay, Paypal, Venmo or some other app. The ease of digital transactions is an enticing factor in downloading one of these apps, removing the need to fumble with cash or a credit card by making payments with just a swipe or tap.

Younger people especially have fully embraced using digital payment apps, taking advantage of their more technically inclined natures and the constant presence of smartphones to have a convenient source of payment with them at all times.

Life Cafe, Chapman’s resident mini-bakery and food shop, currently only accepts cash payments, but I believe that if they accept digital payments it will be beneficial in the long run for any potential growth.

Every lunch period, Life Cafe gets frequent traffic from students seeking to buy a drink or a baked good. But in order to purchase something, students can only use cash, which most people just usually don’t carry with them at school.

Allowing digital payments would be very simple to set up: Just create an account to accept money transfers on each of the platforms you choose. Additionally, it’s completely free to set up an account on most person-to-person payment apps, so it wouldn’t even cost anything extra for Life Cafe to set up.

Many students would be happier if Life Cafe set up digital payment options, and maybe they will in the near future.