Being carried by a business, instead of paying cash


In a long life that spans over six decades now, I've never had a business carry me, and no business ever offered, eithe.! I've always paid cash for my purchases. I'll see if I explain it in a historical context.

The Three Stooges would have been carried by businesses, and it would have been expected. And that simply meant that the business would trust their customer to walk away with stuff, and to pay later. And no, there was no interest. It was so common that if a business refused to carry someone, it would be an insult!

Of course, it cost the businesses quite a lot, because many people failed to pay their bills, and of course the business had to pay things like rent, and inventory. They could, of course, ask to be carried, and often were, and invariably it caused a lot of stretching, and tension. So businesses decided to try to ask their customers to pay right away, with cash, and in order to encourage it, a discount was given.

People had a choice of either paying cash, or being carried, and of course once people realized how much they could save by paying cash (unless they simply didn't pay), they liked the idea. Nowadays all businesses are cash (even if it's not pieces of paper and coins), meaning that you pay before your get to take your stuff out of the store. If you need to be carried, credit cards are available (like Visa), and some stores even often store credit cards. But that's not really the same thing as old-fashioned carrying.

The place where I use to take my car, back in 1977, never offered to carry me, but I could tell that many of their old-time customers expected it. That is, a customer would pick up their car, pay nothing right then and there, be given an invoice and every month receive a statement in the mail, asking for maybe a little bit on account. The running joke was that people were often carried by a business longer than their mothers had done (9 months I believe), and at that point it just got kinda ridiculous. Most people settled up in a month, or right after payday.

I hope that this clears up any confusion that you may have had about being carried by a business. Now everyone, stand in a circle and point to the wall that's on the right!
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