Bhubaneswar, Nov. 9: Plastic money saved the day for many people here today. While few took to online shopping, others rushed to malls to buy utility items using their debit or credit cards. 

Surendra Kanhar, 46, a state government employee, said: “I had to buy some groceries. Instead of going to the local shop, I went to a shopping complex at Satya Nagar where I could use my debit card to purchase the stuff,” he said.

Though major retailers such as Big Bazaar, Pantaloons and Reliance Fresh stores were chock-a-block with customers, small traders had to bear the brunt of the diktat. Satyam Padhi, 25, employee of a major shopping complex, said he had received orders from the management that the store would remain open till midnight. 

“We received customers till midnight and the store registered brisk sales,” he said. 

Most of the local markets, including Unit-1, bore an empty look. 

Aanoj Barik, a local trader at the CRP market, said: “There were hardly any customers today. The few people who came spent little. I hope the situation improves in the upcoming days.”

Satyabrat Mishra, 54, proprietor of a general store at Bomikhal was accepting Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes today, said: “As soon as the store opened in the morning, customers barged in to get their notes changed.”

“By noon, we ran out of change and had no option but to refuse customers who brought items for anything less than the banned denominations,” Mishra said. He stated that in the process losses were incurred.

Grozip, a Bhubaneswar-based grocery store run by young entrepreneur Ananda Mishra, said the website had been flooded with orders since the morning. 

“Most of the people placed orders for milk, eggs and bread. We had to run around shopping complexes to ensure timely delivery,” said Ananda. 

At a time when most of the traders of small commercial units suffered losses, major shopping malls at leading apparel stores in Cuttack did brisk business owing to the availability of e-transaction system.

Many elderly people, who till date were not very accustomed with e-transactions, were seen learning the ropes of the trade from their children. 

“My mother has an ATM card, but she does not know how to operate it. As we did not have enough cash in hand today, I had come here to help her to purchase household articles and make the payment,” Sudhir Pradhan, 21, a resident of Tinikonia Bagicha.

A jewellery showroom owner at Chandrasekharpur said the ban on Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes augurs well for the bullion industry. “People would buy more gold as these can be kept in banks as security,” he said. While small gold traders will be adversely affected by the ban, it will have least impact on biggies, he added. 

“Small gold traders keep a lot of cash and generally do not deal in plastic money, while the major players will cash in on the ban as people would buy gold and keep them in banks as security,” said 37-year-old bank employee Monalisa Nayak.