Business behemoth Amazon recently announced plans on accepting cash at its Amazon Go convenience stores due to pushback against the cashless trend.
According to CNBC, the company has 10 Amazon Go stores and it was reported last year that it had plans to open up to 3,000 cashierless stores by 2021. The idea, thus far, has been to make them cashless as well.
In an internal meeting last month, Steve Kessel, Amazon’s senior VP of physical stores, told employees that the company plans “additional payment mechanisms” at its Go stores though no timeframe was given for the change. The flagship Seattle store was opened to the public in early 2018 and has prepared foods, meal kits, limited groceries and alcohol.
The National ATM Council has expressed its support for states and municipalities banning cashless retailing (like New Jersey did recently).
“We see this as an absolute win for cash, for consumers and even for Amazon,” said George Sarantopoulos, NAC chair and CEO of ATM-provider Access One. “When consumers have freedom of choice, innovation can flourish.