DCist, June 26, 2018: D.C. Councilmember wants to do away with cashless restaurants
It is not the only food establishment in the District to either go cashless or consider the option.
“We talked about it intensely, and there were a lot of strong opinions,” Kevin Thompson, chief financial officer of Jetties, told the Washington City Paper last year. “We knew we’d lose business and piss off customers, but in the end, we decided it was something we were going to do.”
In a quirk of timing, Grosso’s legislation came on the same week that Metrobus launched a pilot program to experiment with barring cash fare payments. It will be in place over the next six months on the 79 route.
Not accepting cash “means effectively that you’re not equally serving all people, and that has an impact in terms of race, income, and age,” says Jesse Van Tol, the CEO of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition. “Aside from a disproportionate impact on low income and younger people, immigrants are also less likely to have a credit card and more likely to use cash.”
