Serving up all-natural hamburgers, fries and shakes, David Friedman opened the first Epic Burger in 2008, aiming to jazz up Chicago’s fast casual scene with fresh, sustainably sourced ingredients. Now, still using the same ultra-high-quality ingredients, Epic Burger has eight locations around the city, and has expanded the menu to include things like an all-natural chicken sandwich, Halal-certified beef and vegetarian friendly options. Inspired by its mission to serve “A More Mindful Burger,” the restaurant’s relentless focus on the simplicity of real ingredients is a distinction guests can taste.
David decided to stop taking cash after several unfortunate incidents related to cash-handling. He thought this would make running Epic Burger safer and easier, but he didn’t anticipate how much it would also grow his business—average orders, due to the larger card purchases, went up 10% and the number of orders during peak hours, given the faster pace, went up 17%.
David saw other benefits as well: Instead of having employee spend two hours a day handling cash, employees could now shift their focus to customer experience-related tasks like training and cleaning. He also didn’t have to pay an armored car service anymore.
Epic Burger expects that these changes will save between $90,000 - $100,000 per year.
"Taking cash out of Epic Burger makes it a nicer place to visit and work," says David. "It’s made it safer and smoother for both our team members and our customers."
Data points are estimates based on 4 months prior vs. post going cash-free.