Convenience store franchise operator 7-Eleven has not seen any benefit from the installation of contactless payment technology in its stores, nor has it observed any consumer benefit.7-Eleven's innovation manager, David Anstee, said the group installed contactless terminals six months ago. Speaking at the Cards & Payments conference in Sydney yesterday, he said: "From our point of view the system is OK. Sometimes the transaction is quicker than a cash payment, sometimes not. The operator still has to initiate steps at the point of sale to enable a transaction, just as they would with a standard debit transaction."It does reduce the amount of cash the stores take in, but it makes no difference to costs if the franchise is banking $3000 a day or $5000. At the same time, we are paying more merchant service fees."Our view is that if it is the way things are going and, if customers want it, we will support it. Our mantra is convenience.Turnover in 7-Eleven stores in Australia is around $1 billion a year. The amount of change paid out on cash transactions is more than $400 million. This includes more than $60 million of gold coins and $17 million of silver.Anstee says what the company really wants is a cashless, not a contactless, solution. "If our store operators didn't have to count cash it would save a lot of time."We know that the value of that change to the customer is low. We are looking at how we can turn the change into vouchers for coffee or a top-up on a phone card. That is where we see innovation in our business."