What to Know
- Sweetgreen announced Thursday that it will reverse its cashless policy and will accept credit, debit, and cash by the end of 2019.
- The announcement comes while the New York City Council considers a bill that would ban cashless stores.
- Sweetgreen said in the statement that cashlessness does not align with their mission.
Sweetgreen announced Thursday that it will reverse its cashless policy and will accept credit, debit, and cash by the end of 2019 at all its locations.
The announcement comes while the New York City Council considers a bill that would ban cashless stores. This bill aims to protect the rights of the 360,000 unbanked New York households to shop at local stores.
“Given the sheer prevalence of unbanked people, I worry deeply about the cashless economy,” said New York City Councilman Ritchie Torres, who introduced the bill. “Not everyone has access to debit or credit, but everyone has access to cash.”
Though Sweetgreen — a fast casual restaurant chain that serves salads —originally went cashless for safety, sustainability and efficiency, it said in the statement that cashlessness does not align with their mission.
“Going cashless had these positive results, but it also had the unintended consequence of excluding those who prefer to pay or can only pay with cash,” the chain's statement, which was published on Medium, said. “To accomplish our mission, everyone in the community needs to have access to real food.”
