Maybe my memory is faulty, but I never remembered having to pay a surcharge to use a credit card. Now everywhere I go there are signs saying that there is a 2.5-3.5% surcharge to use a car (and others that say that there’s a 2.5-3.5% discount for using cash, I assume to get around wording)


Looks like no one here has run a cash business or has experience with the overhead that comes with dealing with cash. It’s not zero.
With credit cards, there is no need for cash drops, safes, drawer balancing, armor cars or employee theft. Banks actually charge businesses fees just for depositing cash.
Yeah.
It’s less trouble for, like, a two-person food truck. Perhaps that‘s what OP is seeing. But cash quickly becomes plenty of trouble.
Credit cards have hazards too though, like chargebacks/fraud. I read some horror story about that sinking a healthy business.