Agree with all that.
What is the protected class?
Further research on the “…legal tender…” statement will show that debts are different than goods & services - if it were true, then it would imply that Amazon or eBay would have to accept cash - best of luck with that.
https://www.federalreserve.gov/faqs/currency_12772.htm:
“There is, however, no Federal statute mandating that a private business, a person, or an organization must accept currency or coins as payment for goods or services. Private businesses are free to develop their own policies on whether to accept cash unless there is a state law which says otherwise.”
For the city to require that a vendor accept cash could be a violation of federal statue.
wrt Tribune article - Senor Sisig is not a basic necessity. They are not trying to be. Businesses that target consumers seeking basic necessities will recognize that there’s a market for cash services and decide what to accept based on their willingness to accept the operational risk and opportunity cost involved.
It is also unlikely that for-profit businesses decide to take cash to be generous - they do it so they don’t have to incur the operational cost in the form of processing fees. As the balance between cost of the labor needed to handle cash vs. cost of processing fees fluctuates, it is not surprising to see businesses adjust their priorities.
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A City cannot require a private vendor to to accept cash, but they can impose it as a condition for use of public property to conduct business.
This is less an issue of legality than it is of good citizenship. By denying service to cash-dependent persons, Señor Sisig is acting out of pure arrogance (a trait not uncommon in the tech world).
Seems like the ‘tech world’ would be the most recent ‘world’ to join this - pretty sure finance has and has owned that title for a long time. Is Coi acting out of pure arrogance by accepting reservations only via Tock and requiring a credit card? Is that different than what Senor Sisig is doing?
I’ll reiterate that I believe it would be illegal for the city to require a vendor to accept certain forms of payment (the city is not paying the vendor) nor does it make sense for the city to do so. If the city has an interest in a safety net (which I would rather support), it should offer cash-to-debit/gift card machines and collect the interest on balances held.
The City of San Francisco is run by others than you, and has a demonstrable interest in social justice. Hopefully, with Ed Lee out of the picture, the city will no longer bend over forward for Silicon Valley.
I can understand why one might find cashless more convenient. But why do you find paying with cash insecure?
Social justice… who are we trying to serve by making a $10 burrito available for cash purchase? Making a $5 lunch a reality would deliver a lot more social justice.
Because i can trace it, I can dispute it, I have protections on my use of funds, and because i don’t have to carry it, I can’t lose it or have it taken from me physically. There are other burdens certainly, but I adapt to manage those and make it less burdensome.
What is more secure about cash?
I didn’t say it was MORE secure. I just don’t understand how it is less secure. Particularly at the buying a taco level, as opposed to the making a mortgage payment level.
I’m confused, how exactly is Señor Sisig a tech company now? I feel that there is an impulse to blame many of San Francisco’s problems on Silicon Valley these days but I don’t think that’s especially fair in this case.
I also wonder if they are part of this incentivized program to get rid of cash:
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I can lose or misplace the cash, I can lose the change, I can give someone the wrong amount of money, I have to count the change and make sure I got the right amount, it can be physically taken from me with no recourse for recovery.
If I lose (or have stolen) cash out of my pocket, it’s gone. With a card all payments unauthorised by me are my bank’s problem, not mine.
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Well, really, so could the taco. Part of interacting with other humans, especially in a city. If cashless works for you, enjoy yourself. But for little purchases like this I’m going to continue to use cash.
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The taco can be taken from you after you’ve purchased it but not beforehand.
The money can be taken from you at anytime you have it on your person.
The window of opportunity for cash is much greater than it is for a taco unless you intend to carry a taco on you whenever you carry cash on you.
DUDE. Seriously. I’m glad you enjoy the cashless thing but I have no idea why you’re so invested in convincing me or anyone else to join you. You go on and have fun.
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Absolutely do not give two shits about convincing anyone that it’s better for anyone except for me. I do care that we evaluate the issue with the right context and information. Comparing the risk of having a taco stolen from you versus having cash stolen from you seems silly.
I also absolutely do care that someone is portraying cashless payments as a form of class discrimination and calling out a food vendor for being arrogant and perpetrating class discrimination thru requiring cashless payments.
You fail to mention that your device or your wallet full of credit cards can be take away from you as easily as your cash or your wallet. In fact, your device is a bigger target for strong arm robbery these days than your cash.
I’m glad you care that someone is pointing out that going cashless at the street commerce level is a form of class discrimination, because the fact gets too easily overlooked.
In Senor Sisig’s loud sidewalk signage and in all their Instagram apologiae did you once see the word “sorry”? That’s arrogance.
FedEx and I think UPS drop-off stores (company-owned ones at least, not necessarily franchised ones) have been cashless for years, at least where I have used them. I believe the main reason is employee safety. While the chance of theft involving serious injury or death of an employee may be tiny, the potential impact is extremely large. If I were an owner of a foodservice operation, I would lean heavily toward cashless for that reason alone.
A more immediate problem, particularly for a small business with a large number of transactions like a food truck, is petty employee theft, which can add up. Where there is cash there are sticky fingers, and there are ways of doing it which won’t be detected by cash counting at the end of the day, so the owner can never really know whether and how much may be being skimmed off. This can be a problem even where the employees are family. Eliminating cash removes that problem.
Then there is the cost and risk of processing cash. Getting cash to the bank has costs and hassle, and risks. I am reminded of the owner of the famous L&B Spumoni Gardens in Brooklyn, who was shot dead a little over a year ago while carrying home receipts from the restaurant in an apparently botched robbery (in the end the money was left behind, but that’s little consolation to a dead man). Again, the chance is very small, but the potential impact can be very large. IIRC the restaurant didn’t take credit cards then, but they do now. Hmmm.
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Cashless is definitely the wave of the future. But make no mistake: no matter how they try to spin it, it is all about the convenience of the business, not the customer. If it was for the customers convenience they would take cash, credit or debit.
I have no problem with a business going cashless, as long as they tell you before you make a purchase. But I recently went to Raleigh’s in Berkeley and ordered two beers. It was only after they poured them and I pulled out a 20 that I was told they don’t accept cash. Wait, what? Fortunately I was with a friend who was willing to put it on his debit card. I have a rule never to takeout a card in a bar, and I’m not going to break it just for the convenience of some business that doesn’t like to get their hands dirty with filthy lucre.
But it made me wonder. What if I got a meal and ate it before I found out they didn’t accept cash. And I really didn’t have any cards on me. I suppose they might have to back down on their rule.
Anyway, more power tothem if that’s what they want. But it’s just another place on my list of places that i was interested in trying until I found out about their “rules.” No-tipping places are on that list too, butdon’t get me started
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