Cashless Restaurants are Backtracking and Accepting Actual Money Again

New York City is currently fighting for the right to make it rain cash wherever you want

Cash
Restaurants in some cities have to take your cash again. (Getty)
Pictures of Money/Creative Commons

Going cashless was a trend that many restaurants and fast casual chains began following in recent years but suddenly, those same businesses are pulling a 180 and returning to accepting paper money after realizing that a cashless approach is, actually, a form of discrimination.

Going cashless means that the more than 20 million Americans that didn’t have a bank account 2017, might be denied service. Many people, like kids, the homeless, those who have less than stellar track records with banks, tourists and people who don’t have permanent addresses, all fall under the category of card-less.

While the policy of rejecting cash creates a huge inconvenience for some customers, cash is actually a problem, according to business owners.

“Going cashless at our storefronts frees our employees from collecting, counting, recording, and depositing transactions,” vice president of business development and operations for Fuku said in a 2018 interview with Eater.

But companies are beginning to realize that this excludes those aforementioned millions of people from spending money at their locations — and legal measures are coming into play to fight this form of discrimination, regardless of how the businesses feel about it.

“Going cashless had these positive results, but it also had the unintended consequence of excluding those who prefer to pay or can only pay with cash,” salad chain Sweetgreen said in a statement when the company announced it would begin accepting cash again, according to Delish.

In Philadelphia, it will be illegal for stores to deny cash beginning July 1. The State of New Jersey has also adopted this ban, Massachusetts has been cash-accepting since the 1970s and New York City is currently fighting for the right to make it rain wherever you please as well.

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