OAKLAND, Calif. (KRON) – Some businesses are choosing to go cashless in Oakland for safety reasons. KRON4 spoke to one restaurant owner that says having cash on hand is just too big of a risk.
The owner says he owns multiple restaurants, and the Oakland location is the only one where he can’t accept cash. He says having cash on hand makes the restaurant and the employees a target for criminals.
“When you have people coming in on a day-in-day-out basis harassing your staff, when your staff gets held up at gunpoint – which we’ve dealt with before – when your venue has been burglarized well north of a dozen times, what other decision do you have at that point?” said Adam Stemmler, the owner of Arthur Mac’s Tap and Snack in North Oakland.
Stemmler says that he and his co-owner struggled with the decision. He says when they decided to open a restaurant in Oakland, they wanted it to be affordable. And not accepting cash forces some potential customers to go elsewhere.
“And looking them in the face that I know doesn’t have access to a bank account and telling them ‘Hey sorry, I can’t take your cash.’ It doesn’t feel good. It feels terrible,” he said.
But they felt they no longer had any other option. The restaurant already had a security system. They had met with City Councilmember Dan Kalb and the police captain. It didn’t make a difference.
But since they put out a sign saying they don’t accept cash, they’ve had no attempted robberies.
Stemmler is also the co-founder of the Farm League Restaurant Group. He says their Oakland location is the only one where they only accept electronic payments.
“I’m involved with bars and restaurants up and down the State of California,” he said.” I’ve done consulting projects internationally, out of state, you name it. I’ve never experienced anything remotely close to what we deal with in Oakland.”
Stemmler says he encourages Oakland residents who are concerned about these issues to let their local representatives know.
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