The proliferation of cashless businesses in Austin

At Little Brother Coffee & Kolaches on South Congress, don't bother trying to buy an espresso with cash. Details: Same with the kimchi fries at Chi'Lantro BBQ. And when you get your favorite snickerdoodles from Tiff's Treats, you're going to have to reach for a card. More and more Austin businesses now inform customers that their cash will not be accepted. Why it matters: Fewer people use paper money in their daily lives, though cashless businesses can impact millions of "unbanked" Americans who lack credit or debit cards. The rate of "unbanked" households is highest within communities of color, lower-income earners and those with disabilities, according to the FDIC.

Flashback: Austin's Human Rights Commission in January 2020 — the pandemic before-times — recommended prohibiting stores and restaurants with at least five employees from refusing to accept cash. But the Austin City Council never took it up, and then COVID struck — leaving many in those early months wary of exchanging potentially contaminated cash. A host of businesses had already been turning away cash for security reasons, especially as customers increasingly turned to their phones and cards for everyday transactions. Cash was "on the ropes but the pandemic accelerated a decline that's been underway,” Axios' Kate Marino observed last year, with ATM activity in sharp decline around the globe. What they're saying: "People on the lower end of the economic spectrum are being squeezed out," Garry Brown, a member of the city's Human Rights Commission, tells Axios.