Sure, you can barely afford your rent, and the condo construction down the street means there’s worse news to come. But amid gentrification wars, rapid displacement, crushing homelessness rates and the occasional EPCOT-ization of cultural authenticity in our downtowns, relatively little ink has been spilled over the cashless trend — and what it says about the future of our cities.
There are
a number of very legitimate reasons a business might prefer to be cashless, ranging from
security (no cash-stuffed safe to be robbed) to
efficiency (less time spent counting bills between orders) to
cost (banks charge a fee on cash deposits).
But the net effect still remains one of exclusion. Take Organic Coup, for instance. It’s definitely not dirt-cheap, but with most meals priced at $9.99, it’s exactly the kind of relatively healthy, relatively affordable restaurant that should be applauded for its
accessibility to a diverse range of customers. Remove cash transactions and it becomes a place where
only certain kinds of people are welcome, and
others are systematically barred from participating in economic life.
There is plenty else to be said about what
types of stores and restaurants are intended for whom (and who else may be priced out). But at the bare minimum, transactions should be accessible to all residents, if they choose to partake.
In Los Angeles and San Francisco,
targeted exclusion of the homeless is a frequently cited complaint around the rise of cashless establishments, but the customer base being filtered out actually extends far beyond the unhoused.
An
estimated 8.4 million American households are “unbanked,”meaning they
do not having a checking or savings account. Unsurprisingly,
low-income individuals and
people of color are far more likely to be unbanked. In 2017,
17% of black households and
14% of Latino households in the U.S. had no bank account,
according to federal data.
The percentage of black and Latino San Franciscans without access to bank accounts — and therefore, likely unable to participate in cashless transactions — could be
staggeringly higher. A 2005 study commissioned by the city and
cited by the Board of Supervisors estimated that as many as
50% of black and Latino households in San Francisco could be unbanked.
With Tuesday’s unanimous vote, San Francisco joins
Philadelphia,
New Jersey and
Massachusetts in barring cashless stores and restaurants. Sweetgreen, a famously cash-free purveyor of upscale salads, also recently announced plans to introduce cash transactions at all locations by the end of the year.
Sure, paper money is plenty antiquated, and our ultimate future will undoubtedly be cashless. But while we’re still muddling through the here and now, it might be worth taking a look around that cool, cashless coffee place that just opened around the corner. Who is it for, and who don’t you see?
And now,
here’s what’s happening across California:
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