Don’t Say No to Cash, Cities Tell Plastic-Only Businesses

Cities and states are responding to business bans on cash transactions with laws prohibiting such practices as discriminatory.

Proposed ordinances in San Francisco, Philadelphia, and New York, and legislation introduced in New York state and New Jersey would require businesses to accept cash payments for goods and services. Plastic-only requirements for transactions from beer stands to big retailers such as the Amazon Go stores are shutting out lower-income consumers, immigrants and others without access to debit and credit cards and other banking services, proponent say.

“The future may be cashless but denying the ability to use cash ...