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Philadelphia Bans Cashless Stores

posted by takyon on Tuesday March 12 2019, @07:17AM   Printer-friendly
from the cashless-grab dept.

upstart writes:

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow1984

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.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 12 2019, @11:56AM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 12 2019, @11:56AM (#813191)

    $465 per month - big fucking deal, close a few tax loopholes that the cheats use and you could write a check to every family in the country for that amount each month.

    There are apparently about 80 million families in the US, so 80e6*465*12 ~ $450 billion per year.

    https://www.statista.com/statistics/183659/number-of-families-in-the-us/ [statista.com]

  • (Score: 2) by bobthecimmerian on Tuesday March 12 2019, @03:46PM

    by bobthecimmerian (6834) on Tuesday March 12 2019, @03:46PM (#813317)

    Which is peanuts when you consider that national wealth is in the 50 trillion range.