Sick of repeated break-ins, more Kansas City area shops respond: ‘No Cash Accepted’
In many ways, T Philip Jensen has felt charmed.
For 25 of the 26 years that Jensen has owned Hi Hat Coffee, the quaint coffee shop he founded in 1999 in Westwood Hills — a northern Johnson County hamlet on State Line Road that’s self-promoted as “the most beautiful little city in Kansas” — his business had never been robbed or burglarized.
Then, in the dark of election night in November, a man smashed the shop’s glass front door in search of cash. Finding none, he fled. Five weeks later, in December, it happened a second time. This time, the perpetrators were several boys or young men who, caught on camera and tripping the alarm, left empty-handed because there was again nothing to find.
Soon, to help dissuade future break-ins, Jensen said he will be putting up signs on yet another new front door (this one with glass, but also steel) meant to send a message as much to would-be burglars as to customers: “No Cash Accepted” and “No Cash on Premises.”
When he does, he will be joining a growing number of small business owners in the Kansas City area, who — sick of what they view as a rising spate of breaks-ins — hope that accepting no cash and having no cash on their premises will lead to no more burglaries.
‘Way of the world’
On Sunday morning, four Kansas City area business were broken into, including Seven Swans Crêperie, 1746 Washington St., along with three businesses on Southwest Boulevard in Kansas City and Kansas City, Kan: Sagebrush, the cocktail bar at 1639 Southwest Blvd, Garden House Cafe, also at 1639 Southwest Blvd., and La Bodega Tapas & Lounge, 703 Southwest Blvd. The La Bodega burglary was its third in six weeks.
“Unfortunately, it’s just the way the world is now,” Jensen of Hi Hat said of the break-ins. “People do what the heck they want and don’t think of the consequences. It’s just gotten so out-of-hand, we probably will not be taking cash any longer. . . . It’s imminent.”
In making the change, Hi Hat will join its four Johnson County neighbors at 50th Street and State Line Road — Annedore’s Fine Chocolates, The Flying Cow Gelato, The Little Flower Shop and the Little Shop Next Door and JSH Home Essentials — all of which have posted signs declaring that they neither keep cash nor take cash as payment.
Five blocks north, the antiques and vintage goods store, Afternoons, 4504 State Line Road, has taped a simple hand-written sign in red ink: “No cash on hand, thank you.” At Chingona Yoga KC, 1807 W. 39th St., a sign on its door likewise reads “No Cash on Premises.”
Rash of break-ins
In June, in Brookside, four businesses had their front doors smashed and were burglarized in a single night: Brookside Sushi, 408 E. 63rd St; French Custard, 5905 Main St; The Littlest Bake Shop, 5511 Troost Ave.; and Oddly Correct, 4141 Troost. In December, an employee was injured nearly during an armed robbery around 11 p.m. at Earl’s Premier, 651 E. 59th St.
At everbowl, 112 W. 63rd St., a new acai bowl franchise in Brookside, owner Patrick Scanlon has opted to go cashless, a trend that he said began for health reasons during the COVID-19 pandemic. That many customers, he said, already use bank cards or apps such as Apple Pay, also made the choice, as well as business operations, easier
“But part of the reason I have a cashless sign out front is the result of the break-ins,” Scanlon said. Shortly before he opened in September, his store’s front window was smashed.
“I didn’t want to deal with money being here in the store. I don’t want to put my staff at risk. I have high school kids working here. It just seemed like the better thing to do. From my understanding, in our Brookside business meetings, KCPD comes and meets with us. They say they’re looking for small safes. They’re not trying to steal anything else other than cash.”
Protecting employees
To be sure, for a great many businesses, such as bars and restaurants, going cashless is not an option. Relying on credits cards also has a cost, with credit card companies charging fees to vendors, often forcing prices to rise.
Zach Moores said that in December alone, all three of the Crows Coffee shops he owns in Kansas City were broken into. He estimates they’ve been broken into 12 to 15 times since 2020. He nonetheless is not going cashless. He said fees to credit card companies already cost him about $90,000 a year, more than he would lose in any single theft, and a number that doesn’t want to see rise.
Instead of using less cash, he wished customers used it more.
“I mean, I like the idea of going cashless and not having to worry about it,” he said of break-ins. But he’s skeptical whether no longer taking cash or putting up signs declaring that there’s no cash on the premises will reduce break-ins.
“It doesn’t make me feel like somebody is not going to break in anyway,” Moores said. “They don’t care. They’re going to try no matter what.”
But near downtown Kansas City, Caitlin Benedict, who in March opened the coffee shop, Bisou at 2122 Jefferson St., going cashless has become a cause.
Her coffee shop has not been victimized. Part of the Downtown Council of Kansas City, she points to multiple problems — such as the lack of a low-barrier homeless shelter, lack of quality mental health care, and lack of a operating city jail — for persistent problems with crime in Kansas City.
Until those problems are better managed, she said, going cashless is one step business owners can take as “a really great deterrent.”
“They’re breaking into multiple businesses, not just restaurants, although restaurants seem to be getting hit really hard right now,” Benedict said. “It’s devastating to our community. We take a hit on two sides. We have the cost of repair. Then we also have the longer-term effects of less foot traffic. People see that there are break-ins and they immediately correlate that with it’s not a safe area.
“Then what happens to our sales? They tank.”
Benedict has her employees locking the coffee’s shop’s iPad at closing. She’s bought a padlock for the patio gate. Although a handful of customers have complained about not being able to pay with cash, most have come to understand.
“Some customers do get a little bit snappy with it,” Benedict said. But all employees, she said, are now told to explain that their not accepting cash because of recent break-ins.
“Sometimes when people get real snippy,” she said, “I kind of say, in my most polite manner, ‘I’m not going to have my employees down here early in the morning when it’s dark out, or later in the day, during closing, and have them alone with cash. I’m just not going to do that. It’s not safe for them.’
“They seem not to argue.”
This story was originally published January 15, 2025 at 11:57 AM.
