I'm in Thailand now where the economy is very centered on cash. Few people pay with cards anywhere even if the option is there. Food vendors (and everything else) are often in carts with no option to pay with anything but cash.
Here, you keep your money in a (fairly high-interest bearing) savings account and get cash from an ATM when you need it. When I get the equivalent of $15 USD, that will last many days for food.
Last summer there was a government initiative to get people to transfer the atm balance to their phones so that you would use the phone to pay everything. I had a message on my ATM transactions for about 6 weeks, but I could not understand how to comply so I ignored it. My phone is in Thai and I have enough trouble with it already! I sure do not want my money in it.
Later, that message stopped and I saw a news article stating the policy was being held back and would be revised due to very low sign ups.
Who wants to pay for dinner with a card when it cost less that $2 usd spread out among 3 vendors - the rice guy, the food guy, and the drink guy? No one!