The Best Businesses for ATM Placement
A practical ranking of business categories that thrive with on-site ATMs and why each one works.
What makes a business 'good' for an ATM
There are three signals that consistently predict good ATM performance: daily foot traffic of meaningful volume, a customer base that pays in cash, and a placement spot inside the business where the machine is visible and accessible.
Categories that hit all three regularly outperform categories that hit only one or two.
The strongest categories
From our experience placing ATMs across New York State, here are the categories that consistently perform.
- Bars, nightclubs, and music venues — strong weekend volume, cash-friendly tipping.
- Smoke shops and vape shops — high cash usage, steady daily volume.
- Convenience stores and bodegas — high foot traffic, small-ticket cash purchases.
- Gas stations — basket lift on the C-store side plus through-wall options.
- Barbershops and nail salons — easy cash tipping for techs and barbers.
- Hotels — guest convenience and predictable steady volume.
- Event venues — high event-driven spikes with pre-event coordination.
- Laundromats — cash-only customer culture and consistent daily traffic.
Categories that are usually weaker
Some categories underperform on ATM placement. Office-only retail (think coffee shops in office towers) tends to be card-heavy. Boutique retail with high-ticket items doesn't drive enough small-cash withdrawals. Drive-through-only QSR rarely has an interior placement spot that customers see.
If your category is on the weaker list but you have unusually strong cash usage, it's still worth asking — we'll review and tell you honestly whether the placement will perform.