Tar Heel Takeout delivery service no longer accepts cash

After a Tarheel Takeout manager was robbed at gunpoint, the founders of the popular delivery service have had to evaluate the service’s payment options. 

The takeout service no longer offers the option to pay with cash. Tarheel Takeout delivers food to students from restaurants that do not offer delivery services.

The company’s founders, Wes Garrison and Charles Douthitt, said the well-being and safety of the drivers was one reason for the removal of the cash payment option. The founders said there have not been any other safety incidents. 

Garrison and Douthitt also made the choice to stop accepting cash because they said it was time-consuming, expensive and difficult to track.

“Often customers at the door wouldn’t have cash or enough cash,” Garrison said. “It was frustrating for the drivers.”

Garrison and Douthitt tested the change, finding that most customers actually used their credit cards instead of cash anyway.

Garrison said the change hasn’t affected business. 

“In the beginning we were scared of how much of our business would go away, but statistically we have not lost any business,” he said. 

They did receive a small number of complaints, mostly from older people, but according to Garrison and Douthitt, there were a larger number of people who were happy with the change.

Most of the restaurants associated with Tarheel Takeout were not affected by the new policy. 

Parker Emmerson, office manager at Mediterranean Deli, said he hadn’t noticed any change in business but that he personally is against the policy.

“Not speaking for the restaurant, but on a personal standpoint, by not accepting cash, we are moving towards a cashless society in general, which places more government control and restrictions on personal finance,” Emmerson said.

Laura Rolleri, shift manager at The Loop Pizza Grill, did not know about Tarheel Takeout’s new policy at all. She said it hasn’t affected business at The Loop. 

“We get at least 100 or more orders a week from Tarheel Takeout,” she said. 

Neither The Loop nor Mediterranean Deli offer other delivery options, and neither managers said they had received complaints about Tarheel Takeout no longer offering cash. 

Freshman Layla Namak has never used Tarheel Takeout but knows about the services the company offers.

“If I ever wanted to, I’d still use Tarheel Takeout,” Namak said. 

“The no-cash policy does not affect me at all. I guess it would only be difficult when you are ordering with multiple people and you want to split the bill in cash.”

Both Garrison and Douthitt believe this change in policy makes Tarheel Takeout more efficient and modern.

“We can deliver our orders faster and more correctly,” Garrison said.

“We changed so we can give better service instead of spending time doing things like counting money.”

city@dailytarheel.com