The grocery store is migrating from cash to cards.
Some banks encourage the use of the “verifone” in these businesses as an advantage for the grocer who is formalized, but also for the consumer.
Julio Moreno Adón’s livelihood is a grocery store that he has had for 20 years in the La Ciénega sector, but despite the decades he has dedicated to the Minimarket La Solución, his greatest strength is that he is at the forefront.
When asked what could be the trend of the colmados, his answer is that for years, these businesses have been migrating from cash to credit and debit cards, a strategy that has been boosted even more by the pandemic.
According to Moreno Adón, having a “verifone” in his business has benefited him a lot, because “even though this is a neighborhood, people here work in businesses and have their cards”.
Although not all grocery stores offer this facility to avoid having to pay taxes or commissions to banks for the consumption of customers, for Moreno Adón this was an opportunity he saw when he began to charge with the card of the state program “Progresando con solidaridad”, to expand a little more.
One of the biggest benefits mentioned by this “colmadero” is that since people no longer want to carry a lot of cash because of the increase in crime, he has the opportunity to offer card payment to his customers for greater security.
But what about frauds or cloning? To this question of Listín Diario, Moreno Adón answered that he has never had any inconvenience in this respect because he “cures himself in health” and charges only the holder of the card who is making the purchase.
“When someone comes to pay with his card, he has to show me his ID card, if he doesn’t, I don’t charge him, because I have to take care of my business and my name. I have to think of myself, if there is a case of fraud, this business is in my name,” he says.
Most of the customers who pay with cards in Moreno Adón’s grocery store buy products from the basic family basket, and not alcoholic beverages or non-essential goods, as one would think.
The micro-entrepreneur explains that although he has a delivery service, in order to pay with cards, the client has to go to the store for security reasons and because he also only has a “verifone”.
He assures that after charging with cards he has received more income, so he qualifies as essential that the businesses already have a verifone because the technology improves every day the quality of life.
Just when Listín Diario was talking to Julio, a lady arrived at the grocery store and paid with her debit card what she was buying to prepare lunch that day.
They charge commission
A few years ago, the trend of the colmados was that people could already make their delivery services by Whatsapp, however, these businesses have been innovating every day to respond to the demands and changes of consumers.
Several of the colmados located in residential areas, such as Alameda, in Santo Domingo Oeste, charge with cards, however, so that the commission of the banks is not paid by them, their strategy has been to charge an additional 5% of the total value of the purchase to the consumer who pays with these facilities.
Deliverys must learn more about the payment method
Juan Fernandez lives in Alameda and prefers to pay by card because most of the time he does not have enough cash even if it costs him a little more.
Although he highlights the advantages of this method of payment, he is concerned that a few weeks ago, the colmado, as usual, sent the “verifone” with the delivery, a boy who was new and did not know how to handle the device well, so instead of RD$500, he was charged RD$5,000 by mistake and he realized it instantly thanks to the fact that he always checks the voucher.
“I immediately called the colmado and they wanted to charge me about RD$250 for the commission with the card charge, but I insisted that it was the delivery’s mistake, not mine and they did not charge me after I stressed to them that it was not my fault,” he says.
To solve this, the grocer was going to send her the RD$4,500 in cash, but in the end what they did was to cancel the transaction and resend the voucher with the elimination of the charge.
This case shows that more preparation is needed on the part of deliveries and grocers to avoid confusion that can affect customers.
José Enrique Mora does not like to buy with a card in the grocers, pointing out that RD$10 or RD$25 in commission for the charge with this method would be a lot of money, besides he considers that it is an expense that should be assumed by the grocer because it attracts more customers and who benefits monetarily is the business.
However, he recognizes that when there is not much money in the debit account, it is possible to pay “only in a necessity” with the credit card.
