Surcharges for card payments don't have many fans - except perhaps the banks but they're not saying.
But testing the mood on the ground, feelings went from resigned acceptance to burning anger.
"I hate surcharges," Money Money (it's her real name) said at Jamison Plaza. When she goes into a shop, she asks the assistant behind the counter if there's an extra charge for using a card. "If they say 'yes', I say 'no thanks', and my mood is upset when I leave the shop."
Her view was that watching the cents would one day add up to a decent savings account balance. "A drop of water can create a big ocean," she said. "I need to buy a house. I need to travel. I need some money in my savings account for my future," the migrant from India said.
Others just accepted the inevitable. The little extra on a bill was like taxes - an unpleasant fact of life that couldn't be avoided. "If I got annoyed by it, I'd be annoyed all the time," one shopper said as she pushed her trolley towards the carpark.
At The Butcher Shop at the centre, there's a big sign on the counter saying: "We accept cash as a preferred method of payment." They take cards and charge a surcharge but would prefer notes and coins.
"Cash doesn't add a burden to the people," Eugene Guevarra said from behind the counter. "Customers appreciate paying in cash.
"I prefer cash because it's very simple and I can just hand it over directly to the cashier. And also abolishing the surcharge would basically help people."
And another advantage, he said, was that cash continued when electronic systems failed.
At Coffee Guru opposite the butcher's, barista David Santeman was not convinced that getting rid of the surcharge would actually make goods cheaper (as Jim Chalmers, the Treasurer, implied it would).
"It would be irrelevant because retailers would just increase prices to cover the short-fall," Mr Santeman said.
He condemned the banks. The surcharge was brought in in 2003 when few people used cards but the banks have kept on with it when most people do use them, he felt. "The banks are profiteering from the cultural change," he said.
Businesses accept surcharges on cards as a fact of life.
"We like cash but not a lot of people carry it any more," Nicole Kelly said behind the counter at Jamison Flowers.
"Carrying a card is more convenient but we do occasionally get people who want to pay in cash." For those few, the store keeps a small float of coins and notes. For the rest, there is no surcharge. The money the banks demand for card use is covered in the final price of the Waratahs or Gerberas which fill the store with colour and scent.
Around the corner at the shopping centre, Ricardo's patisserie doesn't charge a surcharge on cards (though it does charge extra on Sundays). Again, the cost to the bank is covered by general prices.
It's a business decision: surcharges might put customers off so the café prefers other means of payment.
"If we put a one per cent surcharge on, it would be inconvenient for the customer. Every time, they would have to think about it but if they come here, they don't have to worry," manager Abhijet Pawar said.
He didn't think the banks were ripping retailers or customers off. "The surcharge is part of the process of the financial business," he said.
