On March 18, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy followed Philadelphia's move and banned cashless stores with immediate effect. Violators face a fine of at least $2,500.

In San Francisco, brick-and-mortar businesses are required to accept cash for goods and some services. Pop-up stores and internet-only businesses such as ride-hailing companies are exempt, as are food truck businesses, which say they lack the resources to handle cash.

Other US cities, including New York, Chicago and Washington, are considering barring cashless stores to ensure that everyone-including the poor, the homeless and the elderly-can shop with cash.

In New York, Ritchie J. Torres, a councilor for The Bronx, is spearheading the campaign. The Democrat introduced a bill last year that would ban businesses in the city from refusing to accept cash. It has not yet been voted on.

A spokesman for Torres said, "He introduced the bill because there had been a rise in cashless businesses opening specifically in gentrified areas throughout the city. This can have the effect of excluding people, particularly those on low incomes, the underbanked and unbanked in New York from frequenting these establishments.

"If you don't have access to a credit or debit card, then you're not able to use some restaurants. The bill would require restaurants to accept cash. We've received positive feedback, particularly from senior citizens who may be concerned about it because they are used to using cash all of the time. They are supportive of the legislation. In terms of pushback, there has not been much."

Joel Berg, CEO of Hunger Free America, said, "We need to get low-income people long-term access to financial resources that people who are not poor enjoy.

"In other words, enable them to get credit cards or bank cards so that they can bank without high fees, so they can be mainstream members of a modern electronic society like everyone else. The bigger problem is that lower-income people are just totally detached from the modern electronic economy."

As elected officials and those campaigning against going cashless seek to ensure businesses do not exclude certain groups, one expert in consumer behavior, marketing and retail trends believes that stores are simply following consumers' lead by accepting more credit and debit cards along with mobile payments, instead of cash.

Kristen Regine, a retail and marketing professor at Johnson and Wales University in Rhode Island, US, said, "There has been a shift in consumer behavior over the past 20 years, where we are just using more plastic than we are cash.

"When people go out to a restaurant with friends, who has cash? Everyone uses a card. ... Once that happened, it opened up a whole new world for consumers."

A study by the Pew Research Center last year found that fewer dollar bills and coins were being used in the US. The study polled 10,683 adults, with 29 percent saying they made no purchases with cash during a typical week, up from 24 percent in 2015.

But a Federal Reserve report in November said, "Cash continues to be the most frequently used payment instrument, representing 30 percent of all transactions and 55 percent of transactions under $10."

The report said that while online shopping continues to grow, 77 percent of payments were made in-person, with e-commerce representing fewer than 10 percent of all retail transactions.

According to global media company Forbes, a decade ago, six of every 10 retail transactions in the US were in cash. Now three in 10 are in cash.

Regine said millennials are most likely to use digital payment platforms along with Generation Z members (those reaching adulthood in the second decade of this century).

"But Generation X (those over 40) and baby boomers are using more plastic than cash. So, while millennials lead in this and the over-60s are using more cash than the millennials, the boomers are also using plastic."

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