Amazon Go adds cash to payments mix

Amazon Go stores are to start accepting cash.

Specific details or a timeline have been released by Amazon, but the move closely follows Philadelphia becoming the first US city to ban cashless stores. New York, San Francisco, Chicago and Washington, DC, are considering similar legislation and Massachusetts and New Jersey have also gone down this route.

In an internal meeting last month, Steve Kessel, Amazon’s Senior Vice President of Physical Stores, told employees that the company plans “additional payment mechanisms” at its Go venture. He was responding to a question about “discrimination and elitism” at the cashierless stores.

Kessel also highlighted some of the new payment methods Amazon has recently added online, including a pilot that accepts government subsidised SNAP benefits and a new programme called Amazon Cash, which lets users add cash to their digital accounts by bringing money to the likes of 7-Eleven and CVS.