Should cashless stores be banned?

2019-08-21湖北宜昌天问国际学校

疯狂英语·新悦读 2019年8期

关键词：现金支付无现金商店

湖北宜昌天问国际学校王晶

题材热点话题体裁议论文文章词数319 难度 ★★★ 建议用时6′

现在移动支付非常方便，顾客扫一下二维码就付款了，所以出现了一些不收现金的商店。但是有一些只能用现金或者只会用现金的群体就不能在这些商店买东西了，因此有人提出应该禁止无现金商店。

海词积累

1.discriminate v.歧视；区别对待

2.logistics n.后勤；组织工作

Just wanting a hamburger，Hembert Figueroa was surprised to learn the dollar bills in his pocket were no good at Dos Toros Taqueria in Manhattan.

Figueroa,an ironworker,had to stand to the side, holding his hamburger, until a cashier helped him find another customer willing to pay for his meal with a card in exchange for cash.“I had money but I couldn't pay,”he said.

Cash-free stores are generating a backlash among some activists and liberal-leaning policymakers who say the practice discriminates against people like Figueroa, who either lack bank accounts or rely on cash for many transactions.

Advocates for banning cashless stores worry technology is moving too fast for the 6.5%of American households—8.4 million—that do not have a bank account.

Business owners who go cashless say they are following the lead of the majority of customers who are abandoning cash payments.Retailers are under pressure to cater to customers with heightened expectations for fast and convenient service,driven by companies like Amazon and Uber.

Leo Kremer,co-owner of Dos Toros,said the volume of cash transactions at his stores fell from about 50%a decade ago to 15%last year.Cash transactions made the cost and logistics of handling cash especially difficult.However，before going cashless,Dos Toros locations were robbed twice. Kremer argued that businesses that “consistently serve the unbanked and underbanked population won't go cashless. It wouldn't make sense for them”.

But financial experts who work with lowincome people caution against making assumptions about the shopping preferences or buying power of those who rely on cash.Justine Zinkin,CEO of Neighborhood Trust Financial Partners,said the greater urgency in the digital era is finding ways to better include low-income people in the banking system,such as compelling（强迫）banks to offer no-fee starter accounts and encouraging banks to open branches in underserved areas.

——From ABC News