(E-Commerce Will Not Eliminate Check Cashers)

In the 1950s movies were said to be doomed by television. Instead, the industry adjusted by increasing the quality and variety of movies. Later theaters responded to the competition of VCRs, DVDs, pay-per-view, video on demand, and now downloads by going multiscreen and providing stadium seating and expanded food options.

Interestingly, rather than killing the cash-intensive check-cashing businesses, the digital world is fueling change, turning check cashers into providers of low-cost opportunities for cash-and-carry consumers to take cash dollars digital or turn their digital dollars into cash. Customers can cross a "digital divide" that many had feared would turn lower-income Americans into e-commerce have-nots.

Banks branches have had a parallel experience of being unscathed (and perhaps even helped) by technology that was supposed to spell their undoing. ATMs — whose raison d'etre is to dispense cash — have quadrupled since 1996. And with "cash back" becoming generally available for those using debit cards during a retail purchase, access to cash is expanding to the checkout line. Yet the number of bank branches has grown 50% since 1984, an increase fueled in large measure by the addition of expanding services.
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