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Shoppers in Manchester are being given a snapshot of a future cashless society with the advent of the first street in the UK to trade entirely without notes or coins.

Stores on fashionable Beech Road, Chorlton, are going ‘cashless’ on June 21 for one day as a social experiment to test consumer and business reaction to the point in the not too distant future when paper money becomes redundant.

With the British Retail Consortium this month revealing that cash use has dropped 14% in the past five years and experts predicting the end of physical currency inside 20 years, this will be a reality for many consumers with developments in card and mobile payment making it easier than ever to get what you need without any cash in your pocket.

This is why the independent traders who run the road’s bars, restaurants, takeaways, bakery, hairdressers, convenience store, deli, boutiques and other stores – an area long associated with innovation and being on the edge of emerging trends – have agreed to ditch notes and coins and encourage customers to pay only with their cards for one day.

With the nation’s high streets fighting to keep their heads above water, the business owners see this as a way of keeping closer to their customer base by offering the latest and most convenient payment methods, including contactless payment.

The experiment is the idea of card payment provider Handepay, which supplies more than 22,000 businesses across the country with card payment terminals.

Mark Latham, product and innovation director at Handepay, comments: “We’re carrying less cash in our pockets than ever before and Britain is at the forefront of countries heading towards being cashless because the public are always eager to embrace new technology.”