譯／陳韋廷
The other day at Dig Inn, a just-opened lunch spot on Broadway and 38th Street in Midtown Manhattan, Shania Bryant committed a consumer faux pas. She placed her order for chicken and brown rice and yams, and when she got to the register, she held out a $50 bill.
“Sorry,” the cashier told her. “We don’t take cash.” Not, “We don’t take $50s.” No cash. Period.
“What?” Bryant asked.
幾天前，在紐約曼哈坦中城百老匯大道與第38街交口剛開幕的午餐餐廳Dig Inn內，仙妮亞．布萊恩犯了個消費者不太得體的錯。她點了雞肉、糙米飯和山藥，到櫃檯結帳時，掏出張50元美鈔。
收銀員對她說：「抱歉，我們不收現金。」不是「我們不收50美元的鈔票，」是不收現金，就是這樣。
布萊恩女士問道：「蛤？」
The cashier patiently explained. Credit and debit cards were fine, as was the easy-to-download Dig Inn phone app. But the almighty dollar was powerless.
“I’ve never experienced that before,” said Bryant, 20, an assistant to a designer. “I guess we’re in new times.”
收銀員耐心地解釋，信用卡和簽帳金融卡都可以使用，容易下載的Dig Inn手機應用程式也行，但萬能的美元則無能為力。
20歲的設計師助理布萊恩說：「我從未碰過這種事。我想我們正身處在新的時代。」
Indeed. Cashless businesses were once an isolated phenomenon, but now, similarly jarring experiences can be had across the street at Sweetgreen, or two blocks up at Two Forks, or next door to Two Forks at Dos Toros, or over on 41st Street at Bluestone Lane coffee. In Midtown and some other neighborhoods across New York City, cashless is fast on its way to becoming normal.
But it is not quite normal yet. So the cashier at Dig Inn cut Bryant a break.
“Just this one time, we’ll give it to you on the house,” she said, handing over the bag. “But just so you know, in the future.”
的確如此。店家的無現金交易曾經是孤立的特別現象，但如今在對街的沙拉店Sweetgreen，往前方兩個街區的Two Forks餐廳，Two Forks隔壁的墨西哥餐廳Dos Toros，甚或是第41街的Bluestone Lane咖啡店內，都可能會有類似的不愉快經驗。在紐約市中城和市內一些其他區域，無現金交易正快速普及，往成為常態之路邁進。
然而由於還沒有完全成為常態，Dig Inn的收銀員給布萊恩行了個方便。
她把袋子遞給她，說：「就這一次，我們免費奉送，為的是讓你知道，以後該怎麼樣。」
Ah, the future. In the future, when dollar bills are found only in museum display cases, we will look back on this moment of transition and confusion with the same head-shaking smile with which we regard customs on the Isle of Yap in Micronesia, where giant stone discs are still accepted as payment for particularly big-ticket items.
Some people already live in this cashless future. They find nothing strange about paying for a pack of gum with a swipe of a card. If you are one of these people and you are still somehow reading this article, you may be thinking, “What on earth is the big deal?”
哦，未來。當我們將來只能在博物館陳列櫃中看到美鈔時，我們會帶著微笑回顧這個過渡與混亂的時刻，就好像我們看待密克羅尼西亞雅浦島的習俗一樣，因為在當地巨型石盤（石幣）仍被用作特別昂貴物品的支付工具。
有些人已經生活在這種無現金的未來之中。他們覺得刷卡買包口香糖並無奇怪之處。如果你是這些人中的一員而且還在閱讀這篇報導，你可能會在想，「這有什麼大不了的？」
At Two Forks on 40th Street, where the lunch offerings have cheery names like Squash Goals, Kristin Junco, a 34-year-old auditor for the state Education Department, said she had not used cash for about a week and much prefers a cashless establishment to its opposite. “We travel a lot for work,” she said, gesturing to a colleague, “and if they don’t take credit cards that makes things difficult.”
On the other side are those who were raised to equate credit-card spending with taking on debt — something to be avoided whenever possible, and reserved in any case for major expenditures. Those people do things like grab a $5 bill from their purse and run down from their office to the place on the corner thinking that they can buy a snack with it. They will catch on eventually.
在第40街的Two Forks餐廳，午餐提供的食物有著Squash Goals之類令人愉快的名字，34歲的州教育廳審計員克里斯汀．榮科表示，她大概有一周沒用現金了，而且更喜歡與現金制度相對的無現金環境。她指著一位同事說：「我們經常出差。如果他們不收信用卡會比較麻煩。」
而與這些人相反的那群人，則把使用信用卡消費視同負債，認為應盡可能避免，就算要用也該保留給重大支出。這些人喜歡從他們錢包內拿出一張5美元鈔票，從他們的辦公室跑到街角某處，認為他們能用它買零食。他們遲早會趕上潮流。
說文解字看新聞
文／陳韋廷
隨著網路、行動通訊技術之發展，電子支付近年成為一種新的交易型態且取代現金比率不斷升高， 翻轉「現金為王」局面，而除了一般商家外，現在就連政府部門、醫院甚至是夜市都搭上這波無現金交易的潮流。
文中首段單字faux pas是個法文外來語，英語直譯是「false step」，意指「失禮、不得體」之意，常用來指社交禮儀中舉止不當或失禮行為，而要注意的是，此字為可數名詞，單複數皆寫作faux pas，而當我們形容某人穿著打扮不得體也會用到此法文外來語，亦即fashion faux pas。此外，文中倒數第二段的cashless establishment則譯為「無現金環境」，其中establishment代表的是「體制」的意思。
至於on the house為一美式俚語，一般用於餐廳場合，代表「由店家請客、免費招待」之意，而big-ticket item則意指昂貴商品。
