China moves further towards cashless society

[vit05]

South China Morning Post

An argument between staff at a cashless supermarket in northern China and an elderly man who did not know how to use his smartphone to buy a bunch of grapes has revived calls for help for those left behind in the digital economy.

The 67-year-old man, identified only by his surname Xie, tried to use cash to buy the fruit at a supermarket in Jixi, Heilongjiang province, on Sunday, video news site Pear Video reported.

Checkout workers rejected the money and insisted that he use his phone to pay via either WeChat Pay or Alipay, prompting the argument, according to the video.

Alipay is owned by Alibaba, which owns the South China Morning Post.

“I’ll leave if you don’t take the cash,” Xie said in the clip.

“Well, leave if you can,” the cashier replied.

As China goes increasingly cashless, PBOC says cash payment is still alive
Xie took the grapes and approached the door but was stopped by security guards.

“I know it’s not right to leave without paying,” Xie said. “But I have real yuan in my hands. It’s not fake money. Why are you humiliating this old man for not knowing how to use WeChat?”

A security guard later helped Xie process the payment with cash, the report said.

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[Ctn]

Very interesting news and incidence that have happened in the china. I never thought someone can be so stubborn upon the decision of not accepting the cash as mode of payment. This is truly intriguing to me as it is unusual to see within the country where you cant even pay with the real money. So this is like forceful dragging towards the digitisation I guess. However it could be either good to see them approaching like that, initially it may sound very irritating but when there will be complete digitalisation of the country then it may just develop very very fast than the before time. So its either good or bad and depends mostly upon the various factors within the country.

[exstasie]

Xie took the grapes and approached the door but was stopped by security guards.

“I know it’s not right to leave without paying,” Xie said. “But I have real yuan in my hands. It’s not fake money. Why are you humiliating this old man for not knowing how to use WeChat?”

A security guard later helped Xie process the payment with cash, the report said.

It's sad to see the elderly needing to depend on the kindness of strangers, even when they've got the money to pay. The man's got a point. Why the hell should WeChat be a prerequisite for buying fruit at the market?

You shouldn't need a smartphone and a bank account to pay for a bundle of grapes.

I'm glad I live in a place where people actually want cash, more than any of the alternatives.

[Indrawan77]

I personally not too agree with such an immediate switch, it is a big concern for an older generation who doesnt know how to used advance technology, I think the wise way is to provide two ways of payment which is cashless and fiat, cashless transaction is very useful for speed and efficient transaction, but machine can be broken, the Internet also can have disturbance, if we only rely on cashless and something wrong then all of the transaction could be paralysed

[wantjokull]

Thats not moving towards the cashless society, that sounds like forcing the senior nationals to do whatever they want and against their will. Thats actual bad impression made by the country and they should be ashamed of this scenario. How can anyone expect the seniors to get into new world immediately if they never have thought about the drastic changes that are happening around the world. They should not be forced but rather they should be allowed to live the life they want. I mean common you gonna tell them at their 60's and 80's that "hey man, cash works no longer, pay me with your phone". What the heck!!

[Lucius]

It is just one story from China, but some other countries like Sweden is have only 1% of payments in cash and rest is electronic payments. This is way in which today's society is going and it will be necessary for everyone to adapt to this. But solution is not to stop with cash payments, such option should stay until one day people accept only electronic payments.

Most of us would like to pay with BTC or some other crypto, and with time there will be such stores - what to do when some people come in and try to pay with cash and there is no physical options to accept such payment? In any case, we need a transitional period - people can not stay hungry because they do not understand how to use new technology.

[markiz73]

In any civilized country, laws must work.
If cash payments are not banned in stores, the store must accept cash.
Some stores try to set their own rules and for this they should be fined for very large sums.
The whole trend leads to the fact that the chips will integrated in the body of maternity homes at birth.
And violators will be disconnected.

[vasilev456]

In fact, with such rapidly growing technologies, it is a pity for old people who simply do not understand some of the nuances ...

[davis196]

This is out of context and it looks kinda misleading.I think it's fake news or propaganda.
If this case is true,that doesn't prove that the entire country of China will just ban cash payments and adopt digital money as the only payment solution.Perhaps this is just a way for the communist government to increase it's control over the people(by spreading fear that cash will be banned).Stupid conspiracy theory.

[Herucooles]

Before entering the store, asked to pay cash or digital money. Not all elderly people can use it. It's better than embarrassing the elderly like the news

[ShadowBits]

South China Morning Post

An argument between staff at a cashless supermarket in northern China and an elderly man who did not know how to use his smartphone to buy a bunch of grapes has revived calls for help for those left behind in the digital economy.

The 67-year-old man, identified only by his surname Xie, tried to use cash to buy the fruit at a supermarket in Jixi, Heilongjiang province, on Sunday, video news site Pear Video reported.

Checkout workers rejected the money and insisted that he use his phone to pay via either WeChat Pay or Alipay, prompting the argument, according to the video.

Alipay is owned by Alibaba, which owns the South China Morning Post.

“I’ll leave if you don’t take the cash,” Xie said in the clip.

“Well, leave if you can,” the cashier replied.

As China goes increasingly cashless, PBOC says cash payment is still alive
Xie took the grapes and approached the door but was stopped by security guards.

“I know it’s not right to leave without paying,” Xie said. “But I have real yuan in my hands. It’s not fake money. Why are you humiliating this old man for not knowing how to use WeChat?”

A security guard later helped Xie process the payment with cash, the report said.

China is really aiming to get ahead of everyone. They are thinking it right. If they can do so as we can also. But in the end I know that all people will be able to use it.

[ND_INVEST]

The 67-year-old man, identified only by his surname Xie, tried to use cash to buy the fruit at a supermarket in Jixi, Heilongjiang province, on Sunday, video news site Pear Video reported.

Checkout workers rejected the money and insisted that he use his phone to pay via either WeChat Pay or Alipay, prompting the argument, according to the video.

A security guard later helped Xie process the payment with cash, the report said.

China is #6 in the Telegraph list of #10 most cashless societies. However, I think that the image of China as cashless is rather inaccurate. Sure, there are like 3 debit cards per capita there which is huge, but only 10% of people are actually making payments via applications rather than in cash. Rejecting payments in cash seems unreasonable and too much to me. It's good the guard hepled in that case, though.

[Betwrong]

~
A security guard later helped Xie process the payment with cash, the report said.

This is, imo, the most important part of the article. If we want more payments were made without using cash, we have to realize that some people, elderly in particular, probably will never adjust to that. The security guard in question is a hero imo, and we need people like him in every store if we want the transition to be as painless as possible. Also, every place with a sign "We accept Bitcoin" have to be always happy to accept cash as well. Only this way we can avoid unnecessary hostility towards its usage.

[palle11]

This has really exposed the need for education especially for the young ones. The society is going cashless obviously, people need to be educated more to follow up with the growth. It would have been more embarrassing if it were to be someone in the 30s...

I never thought someone can be so stubborn upon the decision of not accepting the cash as mode of payment.

Probably acting out orders from the management either to safe his head/job  
The security guard might have assisted by instruction from either the management via phone call from one of the hidden offices around the mall...

    such option should stay until one day people accept only electronic payments.

This should be away forward on the cashless cliché until a time will come where users themselves would fancy the use of electronics by themselves and not to be coarced on it.

I'm glad I live in a place where people actually want cash, more than any of the alternatives.

Hey friend, you don't need to be glad over any of it. It is a financial revolution coming, you better get ready to embrace it now and be ahead rather than struggle with it when it will get down to you   Teach your old folks and younger ones now...

Every government has a way of following up with other governments to be better positioned for trade.

[haroldtee]

Welcome y'all to the digital age … Very funny and interesting one as I kept picturing the scene in my head and how infuriated the old man must have been.

I really would not say it should be something OK to impose cashless age on people. Some of these old folks find it hard to even be able to understand how technology works and they are so much fixated with the way they have always done things traditionally in the past. So, trying to make it at all cost to go digital is like punishing them for still being around in this digital age, which to me seems unfair.

Good thing he found someone who ended up helping him, but at least, I feel the cashiers should have been able to assist the old man in a way and not just discard him like that.

[Kprawn]

It is just one story from China, but some other countries like Sweden is have only 1% of payments in cash and rest is electronic payments. This is way in which today's society is going and it will be necessary for everyone to adapt to this. But solution is not to stop with cash payments, such option should stay until one day people accept only electronic payments.

Most of us would like to pay with BTC or some other crypto, and with time there will be such stores - what to do when some people come in and try to pay with cash and there is no physical options to accept such payment? In any case, we need a transitional period - people can not stay hungry because they do not understand how to use new technology.

I doubt when this is going to happen, that the government will do it in that way. Usually the government will give advance

notice to people when they do drastic changes to the financial system. When India abolished its highest-value rupee notes,

they gave people advance notice to exchange them, so I figure a mayor change like this will be backed by some good

preparation and training and alternative payment providers will give help to the elderly and uneducated people.  

How did Zimbabweans (with a high percentage of uneducated people), cope with Billion dollar notes, when they were first

issued? (Many of them cannot even count to 20)  

[pitiflin]

Fucking China back at it again. I mean, what do you expect, that darn country has blocked more websites than North Korea LOL!

Forcing citizens out of nowhere and not accepting cash is more of a dick move than an "economical move". Is China just trying too hard to collapse or what?

You shouldn't need a smartphone and a bank account to pay for a bundle of grapes.

How else will strangers who you don't even know, track how you smuggle drugs? Having a bank account is a must you see, especially for people to stalk you on how you spend your money, and then for the bank to "freeze" your account with funds unnecessarily in the name of "security policy". If anything people are just protecting your money from you, and helping you live economically. 

[stompix]

~
A security guard later helped Xie process the payment with cash, the report said.

This is, imo, the most important part of the article. If we want more payments were made without using cash, we have to realize that some people, elderly in particular, probably will never adjust to that. The security guard in question is a hero imo, and we need people like him in every store if we want the transition to be as painless as possible. Also, every place with a sign "We accept Bitcoin" have to be always happy to accept cash as well. Only this way we can avoid unnecessary hostility towards its usage.

No, the most important line of the article is this:

A Jixi resident said the supermarket had different – but poorly labelled – lanes for customers who paid by cash or with their phones.

It's a nonstory.
The supermarket has different lanes for check-out just like here in Europe we have fast lane (under 10 products) and two types of cash-outs, one where you scan your products yourself and you do also the payment (which works only with a credit/debit card).

[justspare]

I think this is not a proper example to give to say CHINA, a country with almost 2 billion people is turning to a cashless society. It was a cashless market and if you go into any of them in any other country than you do not pay with cash neither.

China as of course one of the most innovative and improving country in the world leading in many economical ways has these cashless places but I am pretty sure there must be a place that old dude can buy his fruit with his cash somewhere very close, there are always places to buy fruits nearby.

This of course shows that there are cashless places more than ever however it won't be anytime soon til we are cashless society.

[sinkfish]

Very interesting news and incidence that have happened in the china. I never thought someone can be so stubborn upon the decision of not accepting the cash as mode of payment. This is truly intriguing to me as it is unusual to see within the country where you cant even pay with the real money. So this is like forceful dragging towards the digitisation I guess. However it could be either good to see them approaching like that, initially it may sound very irritating but when there will be complete digitalisation of the country then it may just develop very very fast than the before time. So its either good or bad and depends mostly upon the various factors within the country.

China as ever expanding digitize country always overlook the older generation and old tradition. its a wake up call for all of us not to neglect part of the society even it is not move forward at the same speed.