Amazon Go stores, designed for digital payments, to accept cash

Cash is still king — even with Silicon Valley trying to get rid of it.

Retailing giant Amazon is caving to political pressure to accept cash at its Amazon Go convenience stores, which are designed around digital payments.

“We are working to accept cash at Amazon Go,” the tech giant said in a statement Wednesday, following a report about a senior Amazon executive privately promising to do away with the practice.

On Wednesday, CNBC reported on a recording of a staff meeting in which a senior Amazon executive conceded that the company needs to expand its payment methods in response to criticism that cashless transactions lead to “discrimination and elitism.”

Amazon Go is Amazon’s “grab and go” convenience store concept built on sensors that grab payment information, allowing shoppers to swiftly move in and out without having to wait on lines. There are now 10 stores in California, Chicago and Washington, DC, with plans to open as many as 3,000 in the next couple of years.

But a number of state and city legislators have opposed the trend — arguing that it discriminates against people who may not have bank accounts or credit cards, including low-income people and teenagers.

Last month, Philadelphia became the first city to require stores to accept cash, followed by New Jersey. Legislators in New York state, the Big Apple, Chicago and Washington, DC, are weighing similar bills.

New York legislators cheered the news.

“Amazon saw the writing on the wall and made the right decision to start accepting cash at its Amazon Go stores,” NYC councilman Ritchie Torres said. “A cashless business model is a discriminatory model that excludes the unbanked and people without access to credit.”

Other retailers could follow Amazon’s lead.