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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: 2) by ledow on Tuesday March 12 2019, @03:20PM (2 children)
I do not want private companies / government / my wife knowing what I spend all the time. - A valid concern
I want my kids to be able to buy sweets at the local shop - My kid can. She has a GoHenry card. Which is a Visa Debit. Which is accepted by all major shops.
I want to be able to donate to buskers - You can. Legit buskers in London can often take card nowadays, especially those on the underground. They are less likely to be mugged for their hard-earned cash too.
I want grandparents to be able to give the kids cash on their birthdays - My parents can. They put it on her GoHenry card. Which is a Visa Debit. Which is accepted by any shop she wants to buy things from, but mostly she buys online from Amazon.
I want car boot sales to exist - Cool! I love them too! They do. My local flea market, most stall take iZettle. £~20 for a device and you can take all cards, Paypal, NFC payments, etc. and even old grannies selling off their knitting can take it.
Your arguments aren't "for cash", in the main. They are for a ubiquitous payment system. Card payments are becoming ubiquitous. And, if you stopped using cash, they would take over and become universal.
Note also that I can give my daughter pocket money automatically only "if granny taps to say she did her chores this week". I can monitor her spending. She can't be beaten up in the playground for it. It's PIN-coded and works in an ATM in any European country.
She can't get into debt. She can't go and buy cigarettes with it, or porn or anything that requires age verification, and certainly without us knowing. And I can freeze it immediately should she lose it. Also, her mother, grandparents and other relatives all have the app to do the same for her. She can also put some aside into a savings pocket for herself, put on targets to save towards, send and receive money from her friends, etc. etc. etc.
Note also that my daughter thinks its great as she buys stuff on Amazon video when she wants to and doesn't have to ask her mother to do it. She also lives in Spain. I live in the UK. You *can't* do that with cash. Not without much bigger risks (e.g. currency conversion costs, money being lost in the post, bullying, etc.)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 12 2019, @05:43PM
"She can't get into debt. She can't go and buy cigarettes with it, or porn or anything that requires age verification, and certainly without us knowing. And I can freeze it immediately should she lose it."
So all your points are fine, but those sentences right there are the problem. Not YOUR problem, THE problem. If you remove cash then it becomes trivial for governments to absolutely control the lives of people. China is putting the program into use right now, and no matter how many checks and balances you make such a system will tend towards authoritarian scenarios.
I used to think 100% transparency was a good thing, but there are so many edge cases where privacy is important and has no bearing on the lives of anyone else. We can either live in a super safe world or we can have freedom. Personally I choose freedom.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 12 2019, @08:13PM
It doesn't bother you that the bank is taking something like 3% on every transaction that happens? That's why some small merchants give a 3%-ish discount for paying cash, because they'd have to give that to the bank. And the banks and credit card companies used to penalize the merchants who did that until Dodd-Frank prevented them from punishing the merchants. THOSE are the guys you happily give your 3% to? If the banks didn't take a cut on every transaction, I would be more likely to agree with your position.