80-year-old told cash not accepted, left Fresno store without groceries. Laws about this?
Alice Dominguez, 80, had trouble working her new debit card, so she brought cash to pay for groceries last month at a Save Mart in central Fresno.
The basket of groceries she planned to purchase, including bread and milk, were being bagged when she was told by a cashier Sept. 22 that only debit or credit cards would be accepted. Dominguez said a tiny sign, smaller than a cell phone, announcing the change was still being hung in the check-out line as she was trying to pay.
No exceptions were made for the 80-year-old, who left the store near Ashlan and West avenues empty-handed.
“I felt terrible,” Dominguez said of the experience, adding that it was “embarrassing.”
She’s not planning to return to that Save Mart although it’s near her home and was one of her favorite places to shop for many years. Dominguez’s daughter, Priscilla Chavez, filed a complaint with Save Mart about what happened to her mother.
Victoria Castro, a corporate spokesperson for The Save Mart Companies, said its stores “accept all forms of payment” and that the complaint was investigated.
“We apologized and explained that our team member misinterpreted our policy at the time the incident occurred,” Castro told The Bee. “We have internally addressed the issue and have used this as an opportunity to review and re-communicate company policies to our team members.”
Castro declined to share what that policy is.
Dominguez said the cashier who declined her cash payment Sept. 22 mentioned a “coin shortage.” At another Save Mart she visited this week, she noticed a larger sign that read, “Attention: Due to the current coin shortage, we are requesting no cash payments. Thanks for paying via electronic card or Apple Pay.”
Is there a California law about this?
Chavez did some investigating of her own, checking with numerous stores in Fresno County owned by The Save Mart Companies. She was told others accepted cash, but wasn’t able to find a corporate policy online about the matter.
In her research, she also came upon a state Senate bill proposed earlier this year, SB-926, which would require stores in California to accept cash.
The bill authored by state Sen. Jerry Hill, D-San Mateo, didn’t pass a June fiscal review in the Senate Appropriations Committee.
“Businesses should not be allowed to deny cash as a valid payment method,” Hill wrote in May, “especially not during a pandemic … COVID-19 and its effects further illustrate the need to protect California’s vulnerable communities. By preventing cash discrimination, California can ensure its economy is accessible and that all people can benefit from and participate in it.”
Officials in support of the bill referenced similar laws elsewhere, including that Massachusetts passed a state law in 1978 requiring cash payments be accepted, and that last year San Francisco, Philadelphia, Berkeley and New Jersey did the same. Fresno is not among them.
New York City will require most stores and restaurants accept cash beginning Nov. 19. The federal government doesn’t require businesses accept cash or coins, according to the Federal Reserve Board.
Advocating for low-income residents, undocumented, seniors
Data shows low-income, undocumented and minority communities in California rely on cash payments the most.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation in 2017 reported 7.4% of all California households didn’t have a bank account, and that 17.6% were “underbanked,” according to other comments about SB-926 presented in the Senate Committee on Business, Professions and Economic Development.
“Black and Hispanic households were anywhere from 5-7x more disproportionately affected than white households in the unbanked numbers above,” the comments continued, “and over twice as disproportionately affected as white households in the above underbanked numbers.”
Supporters of the bill also noted that four out of 10 Californians were poor or near poor in 2017, and that around 6% of people in the state at that time were undocumented, according to the Public Policy Institute of California.
Chavez described the Save Mart at 4120 N. West Ave. near their Fresno home as being in an area where many are low-income, people of color, or homeless, and said it’s very important that cash be accepted there.
“If any of the Save Marts in this city need to have cash, it should be that one. I was stunned,” Chavez said about what happened to her mother.
Dominguez said additionally, many seniors are unable to use a debit or credit card, or uncomfortable doing so.
“Not everyone has the leisure of having a credit card or a debit card,” she said, “especially seniors that are retired.”
Regarding Save Mart’s apology, Dominguez said store leaders need to do a better job relaying store policies to workers, along with making sure signs for customers are large and posted at entrances.
