While many establishments, both big and small, are shifting to digital transactions, a walk around the by-lanes of Old Delhi revealed that old food joints in the area are sticking to cash payments.
“People pay by cash readily. So why not accept cash?” said Mohammad Alman, the assistant manager at Karim’s, a popular restaurant in the Walled City.
He added that the restaurant had accepted old notes only for a day after the demonetisation announcement.
No losses
“Things became normal after a week. We did not face losses,” said Mr. Alman.
For many shops, access to sound Internet connectivity in the area is a problem.
“We cannot shift to card transactions because we do not get good connectivity in these areas. It will take longer to process payments and customers will get impatient,” said Anil Sharma, an eatery owner in the famous Paranthe Wali Gali.
Some of the shop owners have accepted the fact that sales for this month will be lower than usual and therefore, are not worried.
“There are very few customers now. Therefore, even if we get a card-swipe machine, it will be of no use to us,” said Ashish Sharma, another eatery owner in Paranthe Wali Gali.
Mr. Sharma, however, expressed the possibility of introducing online payment methods in his shop in future.
“I might introduce card payment in my shop next year. However, I am not very keen on this idea as I know it will not do me much good,” he said.
Some of the lesser known joints even adopted barter system for a few days.
“There were few customers who offered to recharge my phone instead of paying me cash. That worked out well for us,” said Anil Sharma.
‘Customers prefer cash’
The joints that are accepting mobile wallet payments claim that a majority of customers still opt to pay through cash.
“We allow transactions through mobile applications, but customers prefer to pay by cash,” said Jitin Sharma of Natraj Dahi Bhalle Wala.
