tangible effects on mainstreet?

While running errands today I actually went to two different grocery stores.

One to cash a check at a bank branch inside and another to buy some basics.
While running these errands I noticed that neither store had cash back available at the registers and at one of them customer service desk was no longer cashing payroll checks or moneygrams.

Is this a sign of local effects of even midsized/major corporations having a serious cash crunch??

Then while out and about the price of gas dropped from 3.19 which was really cheap to begin with all the way down to 3.12 a gallon which is unheard of.

This made me think of the seeming ploy right before the last elections for the senate/congress when gas dropped sharply right beforehand.
Is the dropping gas price a ploy to bolster confidence in the current PTB