Iowa State Fair Making Transition To Cashless System

(Des Moines, IA) — Well over half of the purchases for food, beverages, and other items at last year’s Iowa State Fair were done electronically — and Gary Slater, the General Manager and C-E-O of the fair, says expects that to increase for this year’s event. In 2014, there was significant push-back when the Iowa State Fair announced a cashless system for buying food during that year’s State Fair and the plan was abandoned as a result. But Slater says last year they switched to a system where every vendor has at least one register that accepts credit cards. Various surveys indicate at least 80 percent of Americans make cashless purchases today. Slater made those comments during a recent appearance on the Iowa P-B-S program “Iowa Today.”