sounds conspiratorial, lol.
It's only conspiratorial if they are conspiring together.
It's like if I go to the supermarket and buy Pepsi, and the next day you go to the supermarket and buy Pepsi, it's not a conspiracy to buy Pepsi. We both bought Pepsi for our own reasons. Maybe it was discounted, maybe we both like Pepsi.
If I phoned you and said "let's buy Pepsi because the local Coca Cola distributor has cooties", and you bought Pepsi for that reason, then it would be a conspiracy.
Businesses are moving to cashless because:
(1) Lower friction, just wave a card at a reader vs going fishing for the right amount of cash, or potentially not having the cash on you when an opportunity arises to purchase something. This benefits both the consumer and the vendor.
(2) Safety - money gets settled to your account daily vs carrying sums of cash around and potentially being robbed.
(3) Less opportunity for pilfering by staff, less cost for security, less time wasted on depositing and withdrawing cash from a bank.
(4) Less drama chasing customers for payments, just take payments for services rendered or goods delivered, on the spot using a mobile card reader (for example).
(4) Try buying stuff online with cash....