The emergence of cashless stores has led several cities and states to ban such stores. This article investigates this policy issue by characterizing consumers who pay cash for in-person purchases and banked and unbanked consumers who do not have credit or debit cards. Using a random utility model, I simulate the effects on consumer welfare caused by a hypothetical complete transition to cashless stores. The simulations show that the burden from this transition on consumers with no credit or debit cards is seven times higher than the burden on consumers who have both cards. The conclusion lists policy options for alternatives to cash that may be needed before all brick-and-mortar stores become cashless.

无现金商店的出现导致多个城市和州禁止此类商店。本文通过对亲自购买现金的消费者以及没有信用卡或借记卡的银行账户和非银行账户的消费者进行特征化来研究这一政策问题。使用随机效用模型，我模拟了假设完全过渡到无现金商店对消费者福利的影响。模拟表明，这种转变对没有信用卡或借记卡的消费者的负担比拥有两张卡的消费者的负担高七倍。结论列出了在所有实体店变为无现金之前可能需要的替代现金的政策选择。