Are You Paying With Card or...Card?
Across DC, residents are slowly losing the choice to pay with cash.
Written by Lydie Lake, Stanley Motyka and Talon Smith
In Southeast DC, Jordan Payn, the owner of Nomad Smoke Shop located on Martin Luther King Jr. Ave, relies on cash-paying customers to keep his business afloat, unlike other businesses across the District that are increasingly switching to card-only payments. For Anacostia residents, however, many people rely on cash daily.
“We wouldn't be able to stay in business if we didn't accept cash,” explained Payn, who said about 75 percent of his customers use cash.
According to Current Population Survey data, in DC, 8 percent of residents completely lack banking services and another 21 percent are underbanked, relying on services like CashApp or Venmo, which Payn sees customers use often. Race is a key factor in analyzing banking data with over 21 percent of Black DC households being unbanked in contrast to the less than one percent of unbanked white households. With Black residents composing over 82 percent of Ward 8’s population, including Anacostia, this issue uniquely affects residents of Southeast DC.
Ward 8 residents also receive the highest amount of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) cash benefits compared to any other ward. 40 percent of Ward 8 receives TANF, while less than one percent of Ward 2 receives these benefits—according to a 2022 Department of Human Services report—meaning more Ward 8 residents consistently rely on cash.
On the other side of the river, Payn owns another Nomad shop on H Street, where customers primarily use card payments to purchase tobacco products. The “complete opposite” of his Anacostia shop, Payn said there is greater accessibility to bank accounts in Northwest DC.
More businesses in Northwest DC, especially on Georgetown’s M Street, have been going cashless, despite legislation from last year that penalizes shops if they do not accept cash.
In 2023, DC adopted the Cashless Retailers Prohibition Amendment Act of 2020 (DC Law 23-187) which requires “most consumer-facing businesses to accept cash as payment.” Many businesses still do not conform to this law and choose to refuse cash as an acceptable form of payment in the name of employee safety.
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A number of businesses felt it was “dangerous” for their employees to carry cash, said Jessican Sidman, the food editor for the Washingtonian Magazine, due to the spike in DC crime over the past couple of years.
At Bluemercury’s Georgetown location, general manager Gillian Gonzales said they do not accept cash for safety reasons. While they have never experienced a robbery, however, their products often get stolen.
“It causes some turn away from some people, but on our part, it keeps us safe in terms of how much we're selling every day,” Gonzales said. “If we have that type of cash on hand, that's a security issue.”
Payn said it is “interesting” that crime is pushing businesses to go cashless because “there’s more crime over here than there is over there,” in reference to Anacostia shops that accept cash despite higher crime.
In 2023, there were 507 robberies and 150 burglaries in Ward 8, while in Ward 2, there were 394 robberies and 144 burglaries, according to DC Crime Data.
The Sprinkles Georgetown cupcake chain also does not accept cash, which their general manager Brenna Crouse Kingsbury said was decided by headquarters and applies to all locations. She said this poses a problem to customers who mainly use cash.
The Georgetown Reformation and Frame stores, which sell higher-end clothing, also do not accept cash.
David Grosso, a former at-large DC councilmember, helped introduce the Cashless Retailers Prohibition Amendment Act. Grosso said the practice of banning cash is an “injustice to people who didn’t have access to credit cards or banks.” He added that the shift to cashless payments harms individuals being paid in cash, particularly populations receiving under-the-table payments such as undocumented workers.
When asked about business owners switching to cashless transactions due to crime, Grosso said, “I thought at the time, and I still think, it’s total bullshit to be honest with you, as an official term.”
Down the street from Sprinkles, Capital One Cafe offers not only Verve coffee and tea products, but also banking advice for those looking to open an account. Another location at the crossroads of MLK Jr. Avenue and Marion Barry Avenue, Ward 8 residents can seek banking advice as well.
Jasmine Andrews, a Capital One Bank ambassador at the Southeast location, said both cash and card payments “meet people where they are.”
“They can be on a journey where they're only using the cash that's in their pocket and nothing else, not dipping into their checking accounts or safe,” she said.
While Capital One Cafe accepts cash, Andrews said their locations motivate people to apply for a Capital One card–which is free of charge–to get 50 percent off of their cafe purchase. About 45 to 55 percent of businesses in the area like carry out shops and corner stores primarily work with cash, but Capital One Cafe offers resources for people who want to open their own account.
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Particularly in the Southeast neighborhood, Andrews said Capital One offers numerous resources that have helped them open bank accounts for people who are going back into society after serving time or 18-year-olds who are getting their first job. Anacostia business owners often see CashApp, Venmo, or PayPal payments, but opening a bank account will actually “secure your money.”
While community efforts from the Capital One Cafe are increasing bank accessibility for Ward 8 residents, many people use cash as their primary payment form.
As more businesses in Northwest DC switch to card-only payments, despite DC legislation, excluding cash payments is “potentially discriminatory,” said Sidman, who has reported on the cashless ban for the Washingtonian.
Jordan Payn's MLK Jr. Ave shop in Anacostia.