Here’s why a cashless society is not coming to San Francisco

In San Francisco, cash is not dead yet.

The City by the Bay has long been seen as a place with its eyes on the high-tech future, but for now cashless stores are kaput in San Francisco.

San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors unanimously passed a new law Tuesday requiring that all brick-and-mortar retail businesses accept cold hard cash, as the LA Times reported. The move is part of an effort to make sure the city’s poorest residents aren’t shut out of access to basic goods and services.

Introduced by Supervisor Vallie Brown, the measure seeks to put accessibility for all above convenience for some: “San Francisco strives to be a welcoming, inclusive place for all city residents… For many city residents (for example, those who are denied access to credit, or who are unable to obtain bank accounts), the ability to engage in consumer transactions depends on the ability to pay for goods and many services in cash. This is especially true of the very poor.”

San Francisco is just the latest big city to bar cashless stores, joining Philadelphia, New Jersey and Massachusetts in the move to keep paper money alive.

The national shift has been partly motivated by the fact that 6.5 percent of American households — or about 20.5 million people — do not have a bank account,  according to a 2017 report by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) Almost 17 percent of black households and 14 percent of Hispanic households fall into this category across the nation, the report notes.

It could be even worse in San Francisco. A 2005 study commissioned by the city and cited by the Board of Supervisors estimates that as many as 50% of black and Latino households in San Francisco could be “unbanked.”

The law would also prevent businesses from charging a fee or placing any other condition on accepting cash payments.

Mobile retail outlets, like food trucks, pop-up shops and Uber and Lyft, are exempt under the new law. The measure specifies that stores must accept cash up to $5,000, but may demand other forms of payment beyond that.

Some big name retailers have already gotten a jump on things. Amazon started taking cash at its Amazon Go stores in April. Breaking the city’s new law could result in a fine of up to $100. Multiple violations could push fees up to $1,000.