Everything About the Cashless System in Hawker Centre Your Parents Probably Need to Know

Take a trip around China and you will realize how advanced their payment system is.

When I dug out cash from my wallet to pay for food in a restaurant, I could feel the stares from the diners around me.

Yikes, I felt really bad for holding up the queue. I mean, even the cashier was expecting me to go cashless. So much so that they didn’t even have enough spare change for me.

Now, back to reality (Man, I really miss travelling). In Singapore, the transition to a cashless society is underway. It is a relatively slow process, but efforts are undeniably being made.

Various services, like that of Visa and Nets, have been doing their best to improve electronic payment methods in Singapore.

According to accounting firm Ernst and Young, targeting hawker centres is an important step in heading towards a cashless society for Singapore. Mr Liew Nam Soon, Ernst and Young’s managing partner for financial services in Asean, said that:

“The hawker centre is the last mile where, if we can get the hawkers and the consumers to adopt e-payment more readily, that would really drive up these transactions”

That’s true. If e-payment becomes a common practice in hawker centres, people will think of using e-payment no matter where they go.

In a survey done by Ernst and Young, out of 100 Singaporeans, only 38 are comfortable paying with their phone. This is much lower than the global average of 50.

In China, the figure is 83, more than twice of that of Singapore.

The scanning of QR codes for payment is also a hassle-free and rapid process. When I was travelling in China, my Singaporean queuing instincts failed me.

What I thought would be a 15 minutes wait took only 5 minutes or so. Without the need for the old school cashiering process, queues clear a lot faster than normal.

For those of you who value cleanliness, here’s another reason to support the cashless system. Now that the stall owners have no need to handle cash, you can’t blame your food poisoning on your money anymore (Heheh, no more food poisoning MC).

It’s true that technical difficulties may happen, but hey. When that happens, just use cash again lah.

So now, if your parents decide to ask you about the reasons for the transition to a cashless system, you can show off your knowledge.

Who knows; they might even join you!

Since you’re here, why not watch a video about an NTU student who went all out to impress his crush, only to end up in…tragedy? Here, watch it and do remember to share it (and also subscribe to Goody Feed YouTube channel)!

This article was first published on goodyfeed.com

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Image: Channelnewsasia.com