Philadelphia Is the First US City to Ban Most Cashless Stores

The rest of the world may be moving towards a completely cashless society, but Philadelphia wants to move in the opposite direction as well. The Wall Street Journal reports that Philadelphia has banned most cashless stores in the city, thus becoming the first to do so. The decision was made on Thursday and stores in the city would be required to accept cash as a payment method. Philadelphia has taken the decision in an attempt to prevent ‘a possibly unintentional’ type of discrimination that customers without credit cards have been facing in the past years.

Considering that a store doesn’t have to accept cash as a payment method unless obligated by other rules, many stores have been discouraging the use of cash, thereby promoting credit cards, mobile apps and other forms of payment. “Most of the people who don’t have credit tend to be lower income, minority, immigrants. It just seemed to me, if not intentional, at least a form of discrimination. Now, stores will be required “to do what businesses have been doing since Ben Franklin was walking the streets of Philadelphia,” Philadelphia City Councilman William Greenlee was quoted saying.

The councilman says that he finds it very disturbing that he can go to a popular café in the city and get a cup of coffee using a credit card when a person with US currency cannot get that. Now that the ban is passed in the city, businesses would have to accept cash as a payment method, although a number of businesses have been exempted from the same. Philadelphia, despite being the first, is not the only city that has plans to ban cashless stores. New York and New Jersey are moving forward with their plans to ban cashless stores.