NY City Council votes to ban cashless businesses
By Karen Matthews
NEW YORK (AP) — New York
City lawmakers voted Thursday
to require stores and restaurants
to accept cash for payment, saying
businesses that accept only
credit and debit cards are discriminating
against New Yorkers
who lack bank accounts and
credit cards.
“This practice punishes the
underbanked,” City Council
Speaker Corey Johnson said
before the council’s 43-3 vote in
favor of the bill.
Under the bill, businesses that
refuse cash will be fined $1,000
for the first violation and $1,500
after that. The measure, which
is expected to go into effect by
the end of the year, also prohibits
stores from charging higher
prices for paying in cash.
Democratic Mayor Bill de
Blasio is expected to sign the
legislation. A spokeswoman for
the mayor said that he supports
the intent of the bill but that his
administration will review it.
Backers of the cashless model
say the benefits include greater
efficiency and eliminating the
risk of theft, but opponents say
millions of Americans still rely
on cash.
In adopting the ban on cashless
businesses, New York City
joins a growing backlash against
the digital-only economy.
Philadelphia became the first
U.S. city to ban cashless stores
last year, despite opposition by
retail giant Amazon. San Francisco
Caribbean L 6 ife, Jan. 31-Feb. 6, 2020
and New Jersey passed
similar measures soon after.
Only one jurisdiction required
businesses to accept cash before
2019: Massachusetts, which
passed a law nearly 40 years
ago.B
ackers of the New York City
bill said that hundreds of thousands
of city residents don’t
have bank accounts or credit
cards and that others simply
prefer to use cash.
“Whatever your reasons, consumers
should have the power to
choose their preferred method
of payment,” City Councilman
Ritchie Torres, the Bronx Democrat
who sponsored the legislation,
said before the council’s
43-3 vote in favor of the bill.
Councilman Kalman Yeger,
a Brooklyn Democrat, said that
businesses should accept cash
but that the local government
shouldn’t force them to.
“We’re inserting ourselves
into the business of business in
a way that we don’t have a right
to do in my opinion,” he said in
explaining his “no” vote.
But some businesses that
will be affected by the no-cash
ban said they will follow the
law when it is enacted.
“We are proud to do business
in NYC and will of course
comply with all NYC laws and
statutes,” Nick Marsh, CEO of
Founders Table, parent company
of the Chopt Creative Salad
Co. and Dos Toros Taqueria
chains, said in a statement.
A company spokeswoman
said six of New York City’s 18
Chopt locations and all of its
17 Dos Toros locations are currently
cashless.
Mary LeSage, waiting to buy
lunch at a Chopt counter in
Manhattan earlier Thursday,
said the cashless policy is efficient
but she agrees that it
might be discriminatory.
“It’s an ease of use sort of
thing, to make it go faster,”
LeSage said. “I’ve seen this line
go all the way around there.
But on the other hand, I do
think it’s wrong to bar people
from food because they don’t
have the necessary resources.
If it takes me five minutes
longer to get lunch, that’s fine
if it means everyone can get
food.”
A restaurant sign alerts customers that it’s “now cashless,”
Thursday Jan. 23, 2020, in New York. Lawmakers in New
York City were voting Thursday on a measure to require
stores and restaurants to accept cash. Critics of the cashfree
business model say it discriminates against people who
don’t have bank accounts or who prefer to use cash.
Associated Press / Bebeto Matthews
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