interesting comments. i frequently buy lunch / dinner at sweet green (+ hale and hearty) - i use their mobile app, it is fast and easy, and i earn rewards for future free meals. i love it. (and if tracking my purchasing habits help their business, then great, happy to be tracked.) i do however feel for lower income and or elderly who only use cash, but ... i also doubt lower income consumers are spending $16-18 on a salad bowl lunch/dinner.
The dollar bill states: "This note is legal tender for all debts, public and private". Cashless businesses are violating American law.
Solution: Don't shop at cashless stores. Just to annoy them, order something and at checkout tell them you only have cash. If enough people do this, it will break them of the polilcy
8
I get it... there are a lot of advantages to going cashless. I approve of businesses making the decision to go cashless, but they had better give me a SECURE card-acceptance method. If I no longer have the choice of cash, I WILL NOT "swipe" a card. Swiping is 1958 technology and is the root-cause of most (if not all) card fraud. Chip/EMV, which has been around for decades is far more secure...but Tokenization (a.k.a. ApplePay/AndroidPay/SamsungPay) is even more secure than Chip/EMV. Businesses that remove cash as a option, and also refuse to accept Chip/EMV (minimum) or refuse to accept NFC (tokenized payment-card data delivered via a mobile/smartphone device) will not get my business. Card fraud, breeches, loss of a company's good reputation, etc. -blame it on "swiping" instead of "dipping" (or even more secure/faster... mobile payments/NFC).
I wonder how my Amish neighbor will pay for things if stores are permitted to deny cash transactions.
14
Very clear way to dump additional abuse on the poor, the cruelest form of discrimination. Obviously businesses may not want to have poor people littering their establishments, and saying “your money is not good here” is an effective way to keep them out. Really no different from the “whites only” signs of the old South. Trump supporters may think it is OK to treat some paying customers with loathing, but that idea couldn’t be more un American.
10
Torres was on the radio talking about this issue a few weeks ago. He was saying that some people who were “unbanked” would be literally unable to shop at Sweetgreen or another restaurant chain that only accepts cards. I just wanted to point out that that’s not true. Anyone can go to a place like Walmart or the Dollar store and use cash to buy a prepaid visa gift card. That being said, I’m not in favor of making low income people jump through yet another hoop just to go about their daily lives.
5
These companies dance around the obvious----they make more money if they do not accept cash. They can hire fewer people.
They are not villainous--they are in business to make money. But governments are in business to protect the public, and should do so. The lines won't be held up if one of ten people pay cash. And they consider banking bags of cash to be a problem? Please.
I have a poor credit rating primarily because I have no credit cards and owe no money. Car and house paid. My low 600 rating is not due to missed payments--but by owing nothing. There are many people who use cash for a variety of reasons, and we should not be unable to shop because the companies want to eliminate jobs and make higher profits. Good government needs to do its job with this.
22
It's not just that. A cashless purgatory would mean you would always have to pay simply for the right to spend the cash that you earned. Further, and most threatening, you would never again spend money without first getting someone else's permission to do so. Cash represents the freedom to access the resources you have earned, without interference or someone looking over your shoulder. "Cashless" is an iron leash; in the wrong hands, it could easily become the ultimate form of control - obey, or starve.
101
@Bill
People who don't read the fine print would be surprised at the things you can't use PayPal/Venmo for; it's a long list that includes cigarettes, drug paraphernalia, and porn, among other things. And you have to ask permission to buy booze, lottery tickets, and plane tickets, among other things. AND they have no qualms about putting your money on hold if they suspect you've violated their policies.
https://www.paypal.com/us/webapps/mpp/ua/acceptableuse-full
21
If companies want to have a cashless system, they should be required to pay taxes to implement or install a system whereby consumers can obtain a debit card for no cost. This might even be a boon for businesses and instill customer loyalty among a new customer base. I can also see a entrepreneurs solving this problem by taking the interests of all parties into account. You can make money and do good at the same time.
32
Paying for all goods and services with credit and debit cards means that the credit card networks and banks are profiting off of every transaction in the marketplace. They are middlemen who are laughing all the way to their own banks!
75
No, the same people make as much or more money off cash handling. If they are laughing, it is because they make money either way.
4
Great. It should be mandated that the two major forms of currency, cash/credit should be accepted everywhere.
But please also require stores and other businesses to accept credit cards. I cannot tell you how many restaurants in Berkeley are cash only. Cash only business are bilking local governments for needed tax revenue and everyone knows it. Even the taxi drivers in Berkeley claim to only accept cash - that is until you start walking away from their car and they magically produce a square interface - which was what happened the final time I decided to support taxis over uber.
If a business is too concerned with the apparently oh-so onerous 3% transaction fee (which can be built into one's pricing model), then please get out of business. It's called a cost of doing business. Carrier pigeons are pretty cheap too but we don't send mail by pigeon anymore because it's the 21st century.
14
@Chris
You may think 3% is nothing, but I guarantee you'd think differently if YOU had to write a check every month to the credit card companies. Instead, it's just hidden. But rest assured, in most of the US, 3-4% of every penny you spend goes to card companies.
16
If you get my credit card you get valuable information about me that can be sold to, or subpoenaed by, others. You also get rid of the rabble. You don't have employee fraud and you don't have to pay to bond employees, and you can't be robbed of cash you have not got. Oh, and you can't be fooled by counterfeits. The question is, can you survive without customers entirely?
28
@Long Memory
Employees can rip off employers with credit cards as easy, or easier than with cash. I've had it happen to me. I've lost more in credit card fraud from bad employees than I have in cash.
20
I love paying cash, but fortunately don't need the option. How about some legislation that will address the number of "unbanked" people?
19
I love cashless places. I get points/cash back, I don't have to wait for the person counting change in front of me, and I'm confident the store is paying their taxes.
1
all this law does is keep ways to allow fraud, money laundering, and bribes. that's the reason why politicians want to force this.
if they wanted to help people, they would promote credit unions or even sponsor one.
1
We should not obsolete cash as payment system. It is arbitrary if we ban cash as payment basing on the unscientific explanation which is provided by retailers and corporates. We cannot acclimate ourselves in the Scandinavian system. A policy is proposed by considering the domestic situations. Methods of payment are an established liberty granting to the customers. Previously, as I recall accurately, American Express won a case which discriminated the card company. Some retailers repulsed American Express because American Express required a higher fee upon the retailers for transaction and security services, comparing to Visa and MasterCard. However, there were an abundant American Express cardholders. The discrimination could baffle and ridicule the cardholders. This trend might lead to less application and usage. It was an unfair precondition to American Express and the card company was not in default at all. In addition, American Express did not violate the law. If retailers, like Amazon (again, you wonder why it keeps undulating the society) will supplicate their motion in court, the verdict most likely will be, they have to be obliged and accept cash from all customers. We are not chastising the companies. Nevertheless, they cannot parallel their cost cutting and public equity.
It is way past time for the US government to issue "cash cards" – cards that have the convenience of plastic but are equivalent to bills and coins, with no personal information linked and no added fees for buyer or seller. Paper money will eventually disappear – completely or enough to make it impractical. It is not right to leave our monetary system solely in the hands of private banks.
3
I think we should ban both cashless and cash only entreprises. If you don't want people's money, you shouldn't be in business.
7
This is opening even more opportunities to both discriminate against, and scam, the elderly.
9
Reverse cash machines.
A new industry.
Instead of putting a card in and getting cash out, you put cash in and get a card out.
Another industry. Another boon for capitalism!
A bit Alice in Wonderland, don’t you think?
1
@Richard B You can go to CVS and get a "gift card" debit card. The problem with this is they charge a fee *and* anti-money laundering laws require you to provide your name/info.
1
@Andrew
I didn’t know that.
That would not be good.
How about a person ordering the meal on a screen, pays for it in cash, and is then issued a voucher for said meal?
Machines would be business specific.
The businesses would have to weigh the costs.
Voucher machines or accepting cash again.
Cashless is great! Very efficient and no threat of robbery. What's the problem?
1
@SR
The problem is I don’t want to hand my credit card over to buy a $3 snack. The problem is you have no need to know my name or anything about me to sell me a bottle of milk. The problem is you have no right to any of my information when I have the legal tender to pay the price you marked on the tag.
This is just nuts. Since when has my right to privacy become such an obstacle to making a simple sale?
32
@SR
Cash is a payment system run and backed by the US Treasury on behalf of the public on a presumably non profit basis.
Credit/debit/e-payment is a for-profit system run by private companies who want to maximize those profits.
It’s that simple.
29
So lines move quicker and businesses do not have to deposit cash so this makes it perfectly fine to discriminate and stigmatize those who do not have a bank account, which at 6% of the population are MILLIONS?!
Talk about a disgrace! Indeed some (businesses as persons) are much more equal than others (breathing flesh and blood humans).
13
Maybe I’m missing something, but don’t we all have to accept cash as “legal tender” under federal law (at least for businesses or transactions that have an impact on interstate commerce)?
16
There are reasons why people like to carry cash and reasons why they are unbankable and it has nothing to with poverty. Illegal immigrants are paid cash under the table, it is a double win because neither the employer nor the employee are paying taxes, it is a triple win when they buy from a mostly cash store, because the retailer is most likely not paying taxes on the cash transaction either. This is the reason way, in certain types of businesses, illegal workers are preferred over legal. If you look at any illegal activity, drugs, vice, illegal gun sales, robbery, bribery etc., they all run on cash because cash is anonymous, and cash does not leave any trail. Suburban neighborhoods are mostly safe because nobody carries cash there and there is no scope for crime to thrive without cash. Cash favors big businesses over small because if a business mostly deals with cash, the owner has to be present on the business site all the time otherwise the employees will pocket all the cash. Cash is the basis for the entire underground economy. This is the reason why a cash business can never scale up and open 100s of locations. The more progressive a society, the more cashless it is going to be and there is going to be less crime there. Walmart, Costco and Wawas of this world are not going to set up shop in neighborhoods which mostly deal with cash.
8
@Rahul
What strange, convoluted, and false reasoning. I live in a suburban neighborhood and prefer to carry cash than give away my personal information to buy avocados at the Trader Joe’s three blocks away.
Suburban neighborhoods are safe BECAUSE people have cash to buy what they need due to being employed, the number one indicator of a safer neighborhood, and they pay higher property taxes that support better law enforcement. Employment opportunities and law enforcement are what make safe neighborhoods, not cashless systems.
13
For people unaware, cash carries as many costs for businesses as credit cards. The merchant has to use staff intensive, usually dual control, procedures to handle and store the cash. The couriers charge the merchant to transport cash to and from the bank. The bank charges to receive and verify the cash deposits. Banks and merchants have to jointly reconcile differences between cash amounts deposited and cash amounts received. The bank charges the merchant for cash orders. The merchant has to have a process for inventory of cash and coin that determines cash to order from the bank and distribution of inventory within a store and across multiple stores. The merchant is responsible for any counterfeit currency accepted. Coins have a separate process flow that has the same complexities.
These operations, out of sight to most customers, rival some factory processes, very inefficient processes. Legislators can do what they desire. If they think they are avoiding costs for merchants relative to cards, they should send some staff to get the real story.
3
I can see why companies prefer to go cashless although I don’t buy the argument that it necessarily speeds things up. Going cashless creates the opportunity for chains like Sweet Greens to create a substantial new revenue stream: they can now sell your data to other companies for targeted marketing. I am against any policy that makes life more profitable and/or convenient for corporations at the expense of citizens who are unable or choose not to pay by credit card. One last note: studies conclude over and over that people spend more money overall when they use credit instead of cash - giving corporations another win and your savings another ding.
14
It's very simple. I don't want my every cup of coffee tracked by an unknown authority. I prefer cash. I no longer patronize Dig Inn, Sweet Greens, Maison Kayser, or any other cashless venue. And guess what--the most exclusive restaurants have a cash only policy. I'm happy to patronize them. I know my meal is private except to my arteries.
20
The most exclusive restaurants, meaning meal tabs in the hundreds, in NYC are cash only? If I was a mugger, my target rich environment would be the people going into these places, not some losers in a subway.
1
@Michael Blazin Yes. Many expensive restaurants on the UES are cash only. As you wait to be seated, a discrete sign by the maitre-d's station states the "no credit card" policy. And they manage to not get robbed. And the patrons likewise are not robbed. Being in a tony locale attracting people like Chuck Schumer, Michael Bloomberg, and other city officials apparently offers some level of protection. Or offers a quick NYPD response.
3
The true motive is rising labor costs. It's leading to businesses to streamline where ever possible. If minimum wage is $15/hr then restaurants and stores can't always afford to pay someone to work a register and count cash. Paying an employee to count the drawer... reconcile the drawer... make a run to the bank with a large sum of cash. And with cash there are costs from registers coming up short and employee theft.
Maybe the lawmakers should figure out how to make it so these underserved can have access to bank accounts and cashless cards. Perhaps outlaw minimums and limit banks for instituting fees. Maybe we should be focused on helping underserved move forward than holding business back.
Plus it costs the economy to print and move all that money around.
1
@Nick
Even a badly run business doesn't spend 3% of their gross sales on counting cash and bringing it to the bank. That's a tremendous amount of money. Let's say... small independent restaurant. If they do $2000 on an average day, they'd have to spend more than $60/day on cash counting. Even at $15/hour, that's 4 hours spent each day on counting cash and driving it to the bank. That doesn't happen.
9
I've worked jobs where I had to count cash. It only takes a few minutes, so at a minimum wage of $15, I would cost the company $2.50, assuming it took me 10 minutes: (10/60)x15. My manager, of course, would have to check behind me and handle the money from there, but she was on a salary so the company wouldn't lose money while she was performing these tasks. Also, my time doing this was rolled into time allowed for closing duties, which was always factored into my schedule anyway. Point is, the time accounting for cash transactions is a really miniscule cost for most businesses.
11
Businesses pay a percentage to the Credit Card Companies whenever things are paid for with credit or debit. The other hidden cost for those of us with minimal income- bank charges for people who use cards on their accounts (some limit use to so many times in 30 days and beyond that there is a fee for each charge), as well as a person has to keep a minimum balance in an account and pays overage charges to the bank when it draws down less. Those of us making close to minimum wage and on fixed incomes are caught between a rock and a hard place if places will not accept cash. I count my pennies at this point.
9
Cash is the one thing that works when the power goes out.
We were in Maui for a tropical storm with 75 mph winds that downed the main transmission line to South Maui. Fortunately I like using cash, so we were able to pay for meals where a hotel had set up its outdoor grills. They had no power for their cash registers, so it was cash only, with handwritten receipts.
So the next time a major hurricane hits the southeast and the power goes out for days, how are people going to pay for food and gas without cash?
29
If they are going to force the acceptance of cash for transactions, they should be fair and also force the acceptance of debit or credit cards for transactions for those of us that prefer to participate in the 21st century and use only our bank cards.
4
@Gusting
Accepting credit/debit cards costs merchants a lot of money. Forcing them to pay for a very expensive (private, for-profit) service that doesn't help the public out in any meaningful way doesn't make a lot of sense.
11
@Gusting
Read the article. Most people without credit or ATM cards are POOR, not luddites. No bank will open a checking account without a hefty balance that many people simply don't have.
8
The fee is usually 3%, and it should be factored into their costs and pricing. Furthermore, the money they save going cash only is at the expense of business from customers who don't carry cash normally. It's even more obnoxious when there is no atm on site for customers to withdraw cash quickly. I can understand having a spending minimum for card transactions, but banning cards altogether seems behind the times.
1
This legislation needs to be passed, and ASAP.
In addition to the unbanked, there are plenty of people who have access to credit/debit cards but who don't want every single package of gum or cup of coffee they buy TRACKED by every entity on the internet (including the Dark Web).
I see college-age kids who have NO cash on them; only their debit card - which must be fun when the system goes down.
Every person in America who is carrying legal American cash should be guaranteed the right to pay for their purchase, of whatever item(s), IN CASH.
22
I'm a retailer, so I see the money side of this. Using plastic costs business about 3% of their gross. No matter what business it is, what kind of card it is, credit or debit, etc., Visa/MC and the few giants who control the entire network (First Data and WorldPay, and Cayan) get about 3% of EVERYTHING you use your card on.
Regular people who don't pay the fees for using credit cards never think about this. If they saw that 3% of everything they spent went to these card companies, a lot people would use a lot more cash. As it is, out of sight, out of mind, most people don't care.
I pay for everything with cash, whenever possible. These credit card companies get 3% of my company's gross (since about 90% of my customers use cards), so I'm not giving them one penny that I don't have to.
21
Well customers have to pay atm fees to, so a cash only business just passes the costs on to the customer. This is really a matter of who foots the bill at the end of the day.
2
@Jmart
If you're paying ATM fees, you're getting ripped off, I'm sorry to say. None of my credit unions charge me to use ATM's. And, I can also get cash at "cash back" places like the grocery store. It costs me 0% to get and carry cash.
7
I actually prefer to pay with a credit card. It's easier to keep track of expenditures that way.
The first place I couldn't pay with cash was back in the early 1990s at a FedEx drop-off booth. The attendant told me the company decided not to allow cash payment in order to deter robberies. Seemed like a good idea to me. I signed up for a FedEx account, which cost nothing and gave me a shipping discount, and used my preprinted labels from then on.
1
Enough! We can't trust to have our accounts safe, and now because people like me are opting to pay cash more frequently, the techies what to force everyone to use credit cards. Already companies try to force you to have a card in the system otherwise you can't make a purchase online. This is dictatorial capitalism! I say enough is enough. Now we are going to have to have a list of where we can go to use money! Off course this all has to do with business interest being able to track your every action. They can't do it if you pay cash, so somewhere down the line, they also lose money for selling your data.
10
If you don't accept my cash, then I don't do business with you. I go someplace else with my cash.
How about these coffee and donut shops, whose sign says, minimum charge on a card is $10.00.
24
@evric
Great idea! No one is forced to patronize any establishment!
3
I feel ashamed of myself for not realizing this!
There is a popular chain of salad eateries here is Washington DC that went cashless last year.
My gut feeling was strong objection but based on the idea of legal tender.
6
This doesn't make any sense. Businesses have to PAY credit cards for the transactions they process. Which is why a lot of businesses explicitly DO NOT accept credit cards.
They told us that putting those chips in the cards would speed things up. Guess what? It slowed everything down.
And those tacos don't even look worth paying for. Cash or no.
11
20 years ago when I didn’t have a bank account/credit card I tried shipping a package via FedEx and UPS to a client. It was futile. We, a very small design studio, ended up losing the client over it.
It is not fare.
2
Paper dollars cannot be refused for any transaction, as it is the basis for the primacy of federal currency as universally accepted payment. All US banknotes have the following statement printed in the lower left portion of the front of the bill: THIS NOTE IS LEGAL TENDER FOR ALL DEBTS PUBLIC AND PRIVATE. That is a unconditional promise by the US Treasury.
If an electronic transaction is the only option, the ability to purchase becomes subject to the permission of the entity processing the transaction. I do not believe that a private company should have the ability that ability.
33
Anything Amazon is for, I am against.
21
If you won’t accept cash then don’t go into business!
A cashless system today is far crazier than the soon-to-be-loathed invention of the “Quatloo”, a yet-to-be-invented currency formulated in the 23rd century.
They all learned…er…will learn their lesson.
3
Stores _must_ take cash. Read the money: "legal tender for all debts, public and private"
This is a disgusting attempt to make it _seem_ like this topic even is up for debate. Once they've convinced the public to accept the idea that this is even debatable, we know which side will ultimately win the propaganda war. The Banks.
They'll continue to claim the government is the bad guy while they take a much higher cut of everyone's money at each junction as it moves through the economy.
19
One of the owners of Sweergreen lives in the building I work in. He tips using Sweetgreen gift cards. Quite a marketing ploy. Sort of like the company store mentality.
6
“This note is legal tender for all debts public and private.” That is written on every US dollar, for all demonstrations. If they don’t accept it, LEAVE!
14
'No Cash' policies are so obviously discriminatory AND Orwellian I'm surprised it even needs to be pointed out. But it does need to be pointed out, I guess.
'This Note Is Legal Tender For All Debts, Public And Private' is an EXCELLENT policy to have in place for cash for a wide variety of reasons. Cash should be accepted in any establishment open to the public where the customer is physically present. Period.
28
Most have said it. Ifmerchants and those entities they hire to process each cashless transaction guarantee or are held at fault for database breaches and ID theft for at least 150 years into the future, then I might be persuaded. Not likely.
16
On my US paper bills it says "This note is legal tender for all debts, public and private." Doesn't this prevent a business from refusing to accept payment in cash?
33
Does this mean online retailers will have to start taking cash?
1
@Matt
From paragraph seven of the article:
...and she worked with businesses to include exceptions, including for airports, parking facilities, car rental companies and any “internet-based transaction.”
So, no. Even if Ms. Pou's bill were to become law, it wouldn't apply to online retailers.
1
Until and unless cash ceases to be "legal tender for all debts, public and private," there's no legal reason why merchants should be able to refuse it as payment.
54
Businesses that refuse cash have one, two, or all three of three reprehensible motives: to increase profits at the expense of customer convenience, to track you, or to keep people they view as undesirable off the premesis.
Their smarmy PR is transparent in its bad faith: “It’s more efficient for our teams and restaurants because they’ll get back hours of their day to cook and spend time with you."
Sorry, but the less time I spend in your restaurants with your "teams" the happier I am.
Also, for any small purchase it's faster to use cash than to (1) fish out a card or phone; (2) figure out whether you're supposed to wave, tap, slide, or insert chip; (3) accept or decline (a) the charge itself, (b) an e-mail receipt, or (c) further sales pitches; (4) wait for the system to process the transaction; (5) sign a receipt or scrawl your pseudo-signature or a cat face on a touchscreen. Long enough to allow someone behind you to memorize your card number, and complicated enough to fluster you so that when they finally hand over your doughnut you leave your phone on the counter.
62
The worse piece is being asked to tip for practically ever single transaction. No, I am not going to add a tip just for a cup of coffee, esp. in stores where I am already paying upwards of $3. If I want to tip, I will do it.
41
@NohRef "but the less time I spend in your restaurants with your "teams" the happier I am."
The best line here!
29
@NohRef If you had a small business and you saw labor costs rising you would have a better understanding.
My cash bills all say "This note is legal tender for all debts, public and private" which is supposed to mean that they must be accepted. So why isn't it already mandatory that these stores and restaurants take cash?
85
Isn't cash supposed to be "legal tender for all debts, public and private"?
21
We used to laugh at the idea that people might someday have chips implanted in their arms to act as an ID, bank card, house key, etc. because it seemed unthinkable that the masses would allow themselves to be so heavily monitored. Now we laugh at the idea of implants because facial recognition scans seem so much more convenient.
10
And who comes out ahead? The charge company! 3-4% merchant fees. Plus the interest the user has to pay on debt from rapidly accumulating purchases. Of course big firms do negotiate reduced fees, giving them another advantage over small business.
I like to pay cash usually; better to control my spending.
26
@ellie k.
The fact that the merchant fees are 3-4% does not change the fact that we're overcharged by default. If one chooses to pay by cash, cost on items should be 3-4% less, since no charge machine has been used. That's not the reality, though.
13
@ellie k. Paying by cash doesn't save the merchant money. With cash you lose money due to employee counting errors giving change or accepting payment of cash, and it's much more susceptible to theft from both inside and outside actors. Additionally having employees count the cash, make deposits, etc is a loss of productivity.
As a credit card user, it's still quite possible to keep your spending under control. Just pay your card off each month if you're concerned about purchase interest costs. It's called discipline.
3
@JP
Discipline is a fine thing, but it is not inherently part of human nature. Businesses do whatever they can to take advantage of human nature for profit. I can virtually GUARANTEE that some business somewhere has taken advantage of you, JP, by using your own psychology against you.
Actually keeping your money in your pocket is one of the absolute best ways to 'keep your money in your pocket', and I would like to retain the ability to do just that.
14
As we all know, or should know, by now, computers are faster when they work, and much, much slower than alternatives when they don't. When "the system" balks on a tiny purchase, and you're the next person in line, cash looks pretty good. It's also pretty hard to get your identity stolen or your bank account raided when you pay with cash.
44
I completely agree with this legislation. In addition to being a major inconvenience for the "un-banked", even if the data is completely "secure" it still gives merchants, banks, debit & credit card companies more information about me than I necessarily want them to have.
If I buy a Big Mac & Fries at McDs on 130 Tottenham Ct. Rd. (London, UK) at 1:30 AM it is no one's business but mine. I'm using that as an example because one time when I was in the UK @ the McDs there the cashiers literally didn't seem to know what to do when I wanted to pay in cash (British cash, of course).
53
@indy474
It's worse than that. Credit card processors sell data about customers to other businesses that accept cards. Meaning, if you use your card at a McDonald's a day before or after you come into my business, I can pay $20/month to my card processor, and I'll know that, along with where you live, and everywhere else you shop. There is no limit to how far and wide your credit/debit card usage is bought/sold/traded.
14
In our modern age we have surrendered so much of our privacy to others whether or not we wish to do so. In a time of facial recognition technology, fingerprint IDs, RFID chips embedded in our identification cards, and DNA databases that allow the authorities to identify the majority of Americans and their relatives, I would like to think that at least for small purchases I could do something with anonymity. I hate to be paranoid about what may seem like something so trivial, but I still like the idea of being able to buy a candy bar without being tracked somewhere by someone.
82
Timing couldn't be better! Friend of mine recently moved to the Charlotte, North Carolina area. She shops in their high priced Harris Teeter supermarkets! Tells me that the express lines only take debit or credit cards! Hopefully, North Carolina will remedy this for their hard working folks!
19
"Older adults also may not have electronic payments set up, or be comfortable using them, she noted." Many retired folks on Social Security are going to food banks not eating out at restaurants due to lack of raises in Social Security that do not keep up with inflation. Many also cannot afford the internet.
39
Cash and the US Postal System are also the only ways to retain anonymity.
38
@Spankygalt Have you mailed a package recently? Address of the party you’re mailing to is put into the system. They say it helps tracking...yeah, sure. And try to mail an enveople with a clerk who tells you there needs to be a complete return address.
1
@Spankygalt
I know for a fact that one post office here in downtown Chicago does not take cash. I found that quite strange.
2