Lowering the Cost of Cash Management

This article is brought to you by U.S. Bank Cash Management Services. 

Staffing costs are increasing for convenience store operators. In 2025, wages and benefits surpassed $90 billion for the first time, and the average hourly wage for a full-time associate exceeded $15 according to the NACS State of the Industry Report® of 2025 Data. 

As retailers look to maximize staff time and focus resources on serving customers, cash management can be an often-overlooked source of operational expense. Many operators continue to rely on manual processes that require time and attention from both store and back-office teams.

“Managing cash across multiple locations can be complex, adding costs that often go unnoticed,” said Dustin Lovell, Vice President of Cash Management Services at U.S. Bank. Beyond the time employees spend counting bills and preparing deposits, retailers often devote significant administrative effort to balancing cash, researching discrepancies, coordinating pickups, managing service providers and responding to cash logistics issues when they arise.

"Our Merchant Cash Solutions product can help retailers address these challenges and more," Lovell said.

“The real benefit isn’t just time savings,” he said. “It’s freeing store and corporate teams from cash logistics demands so they can focus on serving customers, supporting employees and driving business growth.”

Lovell noted that many retailers manage cash within an ecosystem of separate providers and systems. The lack of integration can create inefficiencies, reduce transparency and make cash management more challenging to oversee at scale.

Merchant Cash Solutions simplifies the process for retailers by providing a unified service model, according to Lovell.

“A single point of contact is responsible for coordinating issue resolution across the entire cash ecosystem,” Lovell said. “Instead of chasing answers, retailers have a team of experts working directly on their behalf to investigate issues, manage claims, engage armored carriers and drive problems to resolution.”

By simplifying the systems, processes and partnerships involved in cash management, retailers can reduce hidden costs and free teams to focus on higher-value work. "Reducing the cost of cash management isn't just about fewer cash handling tasks. It's about creating a more efficient operating model, one that allows store teams to focus on customers and corporate teams to focus on strategic priorities rather than cash logistics," Lovell said.

This is the first article in a two-part series brought to you by U.S. Bank Cash Management Services. Look out for part two, which will explore how to reduce risk in cash management, tomorrow.

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