As digital finance continued to grow retailers started to experiment with the idea of cashless stores; the idea was met with some pretty severe backlash as many believed it help increase inequality; “Non-acceptance of cash could potentially marginalize those that have limited access to the financial system or mobile technological devices,” researchers from the Congressional Research Service, a public policy think tank run through the Library of Congress, wrote in a 2019 report according to Business Insider; the unintended consequences of the cashless stores were that they were limiting access to people who were unbanked, consumers were from poorer households and were from minority neighborhoods; legislators also started to take action and crafted bills to make it illegal for retailers to not accept cash payments; the bigger trend today is retailers meeting the customer where they are through cashless payments. Business Insider
