SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — In 2019, San Francisco passed a law requiring that most businesses accept cash from customers and not just credit cards or bank cards. Now the city is thinking of repealing that law.
The U.S. has already stopped producing the penny and now a few San Francisco businesses would like to take cash out of the equation altogether.
“Many of them felt that the cash, the knowledge that there may be cash on the premises, made them a target,” explained Supervisor Rafael Mandelman.
Mandelman’s office told ABC7 Eyewitness News that the risk of being targeted for physical threat has increased 33% since businesses were told in 2019 they had to accept cash.
Mandelman had listened to some of his constituents before considering that perhaps it was time for small businesses to decide if they wanted to go entirely cashless.
MORE: The debate over San Francisco’s parklets: Is it time to get rid of them?
Martah Asten, the owner of Cliff’s Variety store in the Castro District, has always accepted cash.
He says the possibility of a robber because of that is “always a concern in the back of our minds.”
But Asten says the last time someone took money from the store register was more than 50 years ago.
While Mayor Daniel Lurie has been saying that crime is down, a 2019 paper by the Federal Reserve found that not having cash on store premises reduces opportunities for both internal and external robberies.
Then there’s the not-so-small problem of counterfeit money.
“Every single year without fail, we encounter counterfeit bills in a number of denominations,” said Jessica Tsang, who owns Russian Hill Bookstore.
“We have a policy of holding them up to the light, checking them with a pen, making sure they are good because once in a while somebody will pass a bad hundred, bad 20s,” said Asten.
MORE: Banks and retailers run short on pennies as the US Mint stops making them
Still, most businesses ABC7 Eyewitness News spoke to say they will continue to accept cash.
“Many of them are from all walks of life, and I don’t ever want to have to reject a customer because they don’t have a card to pay with,” said Tsang.
The city likes to remind people that “only” about 5% of people living in San Francisco don’t have a checking or savings account, much less a credit card. However, that 5% represents about 50,000 people in San Francisco who can only pay in cash.
That number comes from the City’s Office of Financial Empowerment, which tries to convince people to open a bank account.
Back in 2019, both San Francisco and Berkeley residents demanded equity and inclusivity for those who only carried cash. Those businesses that did not comply with the law faced a fine.
Anthony Carrasco was one of Berkeley’s panel of experts who pushed for the legislation.
“I personally work with a number of unhoused people or formerly unhoused and they don’t have bank accounts because, quite frankly, the amount of money they have is so small that to maintain the minimum balance it’s just not going to work,” he said. “It’s going to cost them more than it’s going to help them.”
He also reminded that in times of a crisis like the recent San Francisco blackout that affected 130,000 people, businesses had to close or accept cash-only. All electronic payment devices were down.
“If they don’t have the capacity to manage cash, store cash safely, that’s just going to be a bigger problem down the road for everybody,” said Carrasco.
All these issues now have Supervisor Mandelman rethinking the proposed legislation.
“I’m hearing concerns from colleagues, I’m hearing some concerns from the community,” said Mandelman.
He is now asking for time to make adjustments to his proposal if there’s any chance of it passing.
Copyright © 2026 KGO-TV. All Rights Reserved.
