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Sorry Amazon: Philadelphia bans cashless stores
This week, Philadelphia's mayor signed a bill that would ban cashless retail stores, according to The Morning Call. The move makes Philadelphia the first major city to require that brick-and-mortar retail stores accept cash. Besides Philadelphia, Massachusetts has required that retailers accept cash since 1978, according to CBS.
The law takes effect July 1, and it will not apply to stores like Costco that require a membership, nor will it apply to parking garages or lots, or to hotels or rental car companies that require a credit or debit card as security for future charges, according to the Wall Street Journal. Retailers caught refusing cash can be fined up to $2,000.
Amazon, whose new Amazon Go stores are cashless and queue-less, reportedly pushed back against the new law, asking for an exemption. According to the WSJ, Philadelphia lawmakers said that Amazon could work around the law under the exemption for stores that require a membership to shop there, but Amazon told the city that a Prime membership is not required to shop at Amazon Go stores, so its options are limited.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Nuke on Tuesday March 12 2019, @10:49AM (4 children)
ledow wrote :
If you owned a "place" you would realise how grateful you should be for every customer you can get. Kicking them in the teeth would not be the way to go. That's unless you are a mega-corp like Amazon or Apple with expert PR operators who can shit on their customers and get away with it.
That's right, set up a ridiculous straw man stereotype. Sorry, I don't recognise myself there.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Tuesday March 12 2019, @12:24PM (1 child)
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2) by urza9814 on Tuesday March 12 2019, @01:55PM
I used to do that with my parents when I was a kid. They don't give credit cards to thirteen year olds, and my parents were not wealthy enough that I could just throw a few hundred bucks on their cards without them caring. When I wanted to buy an expensive LEGO set, I saved up my cash, and I paid them cash in exchange for the use of their card.
(Score: 2) by ledow on Tuesday March 12 2019, @03:29PM
I think you miss two things:
a) These shops ARE cashless for a reason. The one I read about in London (a cashless pub) is cashless because he says enough per night in "counting up time", not to mention trips to the bank, and bank charges for handling cash, and security of money on the premises, and thefts from the tills, that he *chose* to go cashless. And it worked. And most people haven't even cared enough because they all have cards in their back pocket anyway.
b) My friend in work, I do a favour form, because he wasn't very techy and didn't like cards and Internet and stuff. He's past retirement, technically, but just keeps working. Even he got onboard with cashless society, when seeing the speed and advantages of using card payments to buy things online rather than try to buy things in cash from shops he has to visit to do so.
That was the point of my post.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 13 2019, @10:23PM
You mean shit the customers in the mouth, charge for the shit. Charge the customer for the shit when it comes out again and then sell back the same shit?