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Regular-article-logo Wednesday, 16 July 2025

Plastic money saves the day for many

Faced with a cash crunch in the wake of demonetisation of high-denomination notes, many residents found relief in plastic money and online stores.

Shuchismita Chakraborty And Faryal Rumi Published 12.11.16, 12:00 AM
A customer swipes his card at a shop on Friday. 
Picture by Jai Prakash

Faced with a cash crunch in the wake of demonetisation of high-denomination notes, many residents found relief in plastic money and online stores.

Arshad Khan's daughter's marriage is less than a month away. Instead of taking the pain of joining long queues for converting notes, Khan, a resident of Sabjibagh locality, has opted to use a debit card to purchase marriage-related items.

"My father is using the debit card for a purchase for the first time," said Khan's daughter Mahin Fatima.

Khan had earlier withdrawn Rs 60,000 to purchase marriage related items but after demonetisation he deposited the amount in the bank and would withdraw once the rush is over.

For Shalini Gupta, the online portal is a life-saver. Her daughter Radhika is going to be married in November-end and her shopping is still incomplete. "I have never used my debit card for online shopping. It's an emergency situation for us and we are relying on online shopping portals and debit cards. I bought dresses through an online portal which cost me Rs 13,560," said Shalini (53), a resident of Boring Road.

Pushpa Devi, a resident of Kankerbagh, who was spotted shopping at Vishal Mega Mart, said she got her husband's debit card for grocery shopping at a local supermarket.

"I have come along with my brother-in-law Rajnish, who helped me with the process of using the debit card. My husband and I don't know how to use one. So my husband asked me to bring along my brother-in-law. We had very little cash left with us, which we wanted to spend judiciously because we cannot go to the bank everyday and stand in long queues to withdraw money. So we have decided to use the debit card," said Pushpa.

Online grocery stores admitted the surge in their business. Sushant Kumar, head of kiranawale.com, an online grocery store at Boring Road, said: "Our business jumped by 90 per cent and many people bought the goods in bulk because of the marriages in their families. We even got orders from the localities like Fatuha, Patna City and Phulwarisharif," said Sushant.

Owners of online medicine stores acknowledged a hike in sales. Shiraz Imam, co-owner of E-Medix, said while earlier he was getting 10-15 customers a day, on Friday, he got 40.

"We also have swipe-on-delivery system. Our delivery boys take GPRS-enabled point-of sale machine to customers through which they can swipe their debit/credit cards. Earlier, only one or two customers opted for swipe-on-delivery, while today 95 per cent opted for this service," said Shiraz.

Mamta Agrawal, owner of Dadiji Medical Store on SP Verma Road, said: "Earlier 25 per cent customers used debit cards to buy medicines at our store but now it is 50 per cent."

Ankur Chopra, marketing manager of Central Mall echoed Agrawal. "Earlier, the ratio of cash and debit cards was 70:30, now it is 20:80," he said.

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