‘Cash is the staple of our country’: Bill would push businesses to accept cash
As excerpted from Maryland Matters:
A Montgomery County delegate is pushing a bill that would require businesses to accept cash payments for purchases less than $300, a move that supporters said keeps the economy open to all Marylanders.
“Cash is the staple of our country,” Del. Gregory Wims (D-Montgomery) said at a House hearing last month on House Bill 191. “No person should be prohibited from using legal tender when trying to buy groceries at the supermarket or clothes at a clothing store.”
The bill, the “Consumer Protection – Retail Transactions – Cash Payments,” would address the growing number of incidents in which merchants do not accept cash payments at brick-and-mortar stores, said Wims, the sponsor of the bill.
But some opponents argue a cash mandate could heighten safety risks for retailers and increase the cost of running a business. Since its Feb. 10 hearing in the House Economic Matters Committee the bill appears to have stalled.
The legislation comes as more and more retailers refuse to accept cash, a policy bill supporters said could exclude undocumented people, low-income households and those without bank accounts from making purchases.
The bill would also prohibit merchants from charging additional fees for customers paying with cash. The requirement would not apply to purchases made online, over the phone or by mail. Among other provisions, it would not include transactions when merchants are operating at a temporary location, including at an event.
Advocates said the bill could help many low- and middle-income families who use cash or those who have maxed out their credit cards and are unable to use them.
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Cailey Locklair, president of the Maryland Retailers Alliance, said there are many reasons why businesses are moving toward a cashless model.
She pointed to concerns, including employee safety, organized retail crime, robbery and theft. Many retailers are using “app based, mobile kiosk-kind of models that are designed to be cashless for efficiency and speed,” she said.
There are also other costs associated with using cash, such as cash registers, safes, deposit fees and staff time to count the money, Locklair said.
“For smaller retailers who operate on really thin margins, those costs can be significant,” she said.
