Last Updated on December 14, 2025 by Craig Allen Keefner
Associated Press story published on Oil City News 5/12/2019
Editors note: There should be a way to accept cash without the usual liabilities and the usual ways. Cash for credit conversion machines for example.
By ALEXANDRA OLSON and KEN SWEET AP Business Writers
NEW YORK (AP) — Hembert Figueroa just wanted a taco.
So he was surprised to learn the dollar bills in his pocket were no good at Dos Toros Taqueria in Manhattan, one of a small but growing number of establishments across the U.S. where customers can only pay by card or smartphone.
Cash-free stores are generating a backlash among some activists and liberal-leaning policymakers who say the practice discriminates against people like Figueroa, who either lack bank accounts or rely on cash for many transactions.
Figueroa, an ironworker, had to stand to the side, holding his taco, until a sympathetic cashier helped him find another customer willing to pay for his meal with a card in exchange for cash.
“I had money and I couldn’t pay,” he said.
Read complete story published on Oil City News 5/12/2019
