Businesses "Going Cashless" Is Discriminatory To Many w/o Credit; Action To Stop It.
"Why Going Cashless Is Discriminatory – And What's Being Done To Stop It," The Guardian, July 15, 2018.
Not accepting cash excludes service to those without access to credit cards, but a new bill would make it illegal for restaurants to refuse paper money.
Mobile payments. Credit cards. Digital currencies. Going cashless seems to be a worldwide trend. In Belgium, it is illegal to buy real estate with cash. Some banks in Australia have eliminated cash from their branches. Sweden has seen its use of cash drop to less than 2% of all transactions, and the number could be heading even lower in the next few years.
<Can the homeless adapt to cashless society? Read More.>
However, one city in the US is resisting that trend: Washington DC. In the nation’s capital cash is still king, and a new bill introduced this week wants to keep it that way. The Cashless Retailers Prohibition Act of 2018 would make it illegal for restaurants and retailers not to accept cash or charge a different price to customers depending on the type of payment they use. City councilmember David Grasso, and five other councilmembers who co-introduced the bill, are responding to the recent tide of retailers in their city and around the country – like the salad chain Sweetgreen – who are no longer accepting cash. These retailers, which mostly serve upscale customers, say that going cashless speeds up transactions, improves customer service and makes for more accurate accounting. They also argue that having less cash lying around also minimizes the risk of crime and contributes to a safer environment for both their customers and employees.
But to some, not accepting cash is discriminatory. A report last year by the Washington City Paper found that 27% of people in the US would have trouble using only a credit card to purchase products, and that the percentage in Washington DC is even higher. “I’m concerned with more and more restaurants, businesses and shops going cashless because you’re systematically excluding a group of people who are already disadvantaged and disenfranchised,” Linnea Lassiter, an analyst at the DC Fiscal Policy Institute, told the paper. “And now they can’t have access to this restaurant?”
Which is exactly why Grasso and his fellow councilmembers introduced the bill. “Banning the use of cash is a discriminatory practice that disproportionately impacts the 10% of DC residents who are unbanked, and an additional 25% of residents who are underbanked and may not have access to a credit card,” he said in a statement on his website. “In addition, this practice is discriminatory against youth, who are often unable to obtain a credit card, impacting many of our middle school and high school students.
By denying patrons the ability to use cash as a form of payment, businesses are effectively telling lower-income and young patrons that they are not welcome.”...
More, https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/jul/15/cashless-ban-washington-act-discrimination
Related, https://chicago.suntimes.com/business/vote-postponed-on-measure-requiring-chicago-businesses-to-accept-cash/
= new reply since forum marked as read
Thompson says. “On a selfish level, it’s made my life a lot easier. It streamlines everything.” [*The honesty is appreciated!]
- Washington CITY PAPER, "Casual Restaurants Are Going Cashless—And Cutting Off Their Unbanked Customers," "You’re systematically excluding a group of people who are already disadvantaged & disenfranchised,"- June 29, 2018.
Georgetown’s vegetarian taco restaurant Chaia is weighing a tough call that many of the region’s fast-casual eateries will grapple with as an already swollen market becomes even more saturated with competition. Should it go cashless to streamline operations and reduce customer wait times? Or should it continue to accept cash in order to make its healthy food more accessible to all Washingtonians? “The reason not to is there are folks that don’t have a credit card and they can’t eat,” says Chaia co-owner Bettina Stern. “I don’t want to cut people out. That’s why we haven’t done it.”
In D.C., 11.8 percent of all households are unbanked, meaning they don’t have access to traditional savings or checking accounts.. And another 24.8 percent of District households are underbanked, bringing the total percentage of households who might have trouble swiping or inserting a card at a register to more than 36 percent. Compare that to 27.7 percent nationwide.
SWEETGREEN, the salad company has more than 60 stores across the country, is one of the largest chains to go cashless thus far—making the controversial switch in March for its DC area locations..Sweetgreen and Jetties estimate that cash customers accounted for about 10 percent of their business..“Even before we stopped taking cash, we saw the percentage of [cash] revenue drop from 40 percent to 10 percent in a span of a couple of years,” Thompson says..They might come back. I hope they would come back.” But unbanked customers wouldn’t be able to come back.
- Sweetgreen, CASHLESS, 60+ stores nationwide.
Linnea Lassiter, an analyst at the D.C. Fiscal Policy Institute, says cashless policies make healthy food even less accessible for low-income Washingtonians..“I’m concerned with more and more restaurants, businesses, and shops going cashless because you’re systematically excluding a group of people who are already disadvantaged and disenfranchised,” Lassiter says. Lassiter believes that restaurants like Sweetgreen have calculated that their typical customer is not a low-income person of color who doesn’t have access to a bank account. “They’ll say, ‘We’re not in Ward 7 or 8, and our clientele is not low-income or African-American,’” she says. “People of color commute and or live in areas where there are Sweetgreens.”
Employment status, income, and race are the three biggest factors influencing whether someone has a bank account, but immigration status also plays a role because proper documentation is required to open an account. Language barriers are also a predictor. A final factor is geographic proximity to a banking branch. Like food deserts, bank deserts exist in D.C. too. And where there are no banks, predatory payday lenders set up shop, Lassiter says.
“In D.C., we know nearly 15 percent of black residents are unemployed,” she notes, adding that the median white household income here is $120,000 per year while the median black household income is $41,000 per year. And the disparity is worsening.
Recognizing how important it is to serve all diners, CAVA—another locally-based fast-casual chain with about 30 locations nationwide—hasn’t pulled the trigger. “We believe exclusively accepting cashless payments is not in the best interest of our customers,” says CEO Brett Schulman, whose Mediterranean chain has a team of data scientists who use technology to enhance customer experience. “We pride ourselves on being an inclusive company. If you’re trying to make high-quality, healthier food accessible to more people, you can’t exclude the people who have the least access to it.”
- CAVA Grill, *Accepts CASH*: 30 locations nationwide.
Pretty soon more fast-casual restaurants like Beefsteak, eatsa, Shouk, HipCityVeg, SKWR Kabobline, Little Sesame, &pizza, TaKorean, Buredo, Pow Pow, and District Taco will stare down the same decision, if they haven’t already. Because Surfside in Dupont Circle is open 24 hours a day, it was cashless from day one for that very reason. “We have no problems down there with not taking cash, and it’s a very diverse crowd,” Thompson says of Surfside. “On a selfish level, it’s made my life a lot easier. It streamlines everything.”
Sweetgreen founder Jonathan Neman told Business Insider that eliminating cash speeds service by 10 percent, but Lassiter finds fault with taking such drastic measures to shave off a few seconds. “It goes back to that idea that people who make more money—frankly white residents, segments that have more privilege—their time is more valuable than people with less privilege.”..
https://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/food/young-hungry/article/20866190/casual-restaurants-are-going-cashlessand-cutting-off-their-unbanked-customers
