I think the catch you may be up against is that a lot of in-store cash machines which used to charge have over roughly the last year switched to free withdrawals. I think there was some pressure from the government on this issue though I think the pressure was on financial institutions rather than store owners?
Obviously in a garden centre you may not be dealing with really poor people but I think part of the pressure was due to cash machines in convenience stores carrying a charge but these machines tended to be used by the genuinely poor people in areas where there were no other facilities for obtaining cash?
Nevertheless for whatever reason a lot of 'charging' within store cash machines are now advertised as 'free' cash machines and this may be one reason why you are encountering such an adverse reaction?
I'd agree with the person who suggested that it might be better if you offered a cash back facility when someone makes a purchase. The catch obviously is that of having enough cash on hand! Today I went to a 'hole in the wall' cash machine at a bank just 25 yards or so from my own shop on the same side of the road only to find it flagging up that it could not be used at that time. So I went into the Convenience Store just two doors from my own business which has one of the new 'Open Counter' Post Offices. In theory they were more than willing that I put my card in their counter card machine and withdrew some cash but in fact they only had £20 in notes available at that point while I needed a minimum of thirty for a specific purpose
So then I trudged over to the bank just across from my business and that hole in the wall was functional and disgorged the cash I needed.
So if my need was so desperate why couldn't I borrow the cash from my own business? Well we had someone available to go and bank for us late yesterday (open counter Post Offices can't accept our deposits so it takes a drive to a 'real full fat' Post Office). So our cash on hand was more than adequate for giving change but not so plentiful to avoid inconvenience if I borrowed from it at that point.
I got my cash. If the second hole in the wall cash machine had not been working, I could, for the sake of making some purchase have got cash within-store from the Co-operative Convenience Store just across the road. Or I could have walked about 100 yards to a Tesco Convenience Store (I normally firmly act as if Tesco does not exist!) and used their hole in the wall.
My need at that point was quite trifling, I just wanted to pay another business which had helpfully and speedily got something for my own personal use and that business doesn't have a card machine. They'd have waited but I didn't want them to have to wait... I don't carry much personal cash around with me because sometimes I have to carry business cash between the end of one business day and the start of the next and I just prefer to keep the amount under control.
This sort of experience, in an area with umpteen in theory ways to obtain cash, does make you realise how desperate it must be for some householders on limited incomes in areas without such facilities and where maybe the only cash machine charges. Personally I resent being charged £1 or £1.50 or £1.99 or whatever to access my cash but such a charge doesn't impinge on my ability to eat or buy clothes for my children or keep a roof over my head, for many people unfortunately it does.
