News

Sweetgreens reverses no-cash policy

April 25, 2019

Sweetgreen, feeling the growing backlash against cashless retail that has led to a movement to ban the practice in several cities and states, said it would begin accepting cash at all of its restaurants by the end of the year.

"Ultimately we have realized that while being cashless has its advantages, today it is not the right solution to fulfill our mission," the company said this week in a Medium post, "To accomplish our mission, everyone in the community needs to have access to real food."

The restaurant brand, which launched in 2007, in Culver City, California, operates more than 90 units across the country, including in New York, Washington D.C., San Francisco, Boston and other major cities. It originally announced plans to go cashless in December 2016, noting that when it opened in 2007, about 40 percent of its business was cash, but that number had fallen to about 10 percent of companywide transactions by 2016.

Sweetgreen announced a reversal of the orignial policy, however, and a spokesperson confirmed that it would initially begin accepting cash at its six Philadelphia locations starting July 1. The city banned the all-cashless retail practice more than a month ago.