News

San Francisco to consider ban on cashless merchants

March 26, 2019

San Francisco is considering a ban on cashless retailers, following in the recent footsteps of the city of Philadelphia and the state of New Jersey. 

In San Francisco, District Five Supervisor Vallie Brown introduced a bill in late February that aims to ban cashless retailers on the grounds that they can exclude members of the community who are un- or underbanked. 

At a recent board of supervisors meeting, Brown amended the bill, adding the previously exempted Amazon Go cashierless stores to the ban, according to a report by CNBC.

Amazon Go stores allow customers to select items from the store's shelves and leave without stopping at a checkout point. A sophisticated network of cameras in the store identifies items as they are selected and automatically charges them to the shopper's in-app bankcard.

The wording of the proposed bill states that:

[P]hysical cash remains the most accessible anonymous medium of exchange in this country. Others may not be well situated to participate in the formal banking system, or may be excluded from that system against their will. In short, denying the ability to use cash as a payment method means excluding too many people.

According to the CNBC report, Amazon has lobbied hard against previous cashless bans and is likely to do so with proposed ban in San Francisco, as well.