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Swipe a card for taxis or tofu
By Nie Xin |
July 7, 2009, Tuesday
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PAY for buses or bananas, Metro or mangoes, taxis or tofu, rail fare or radishes. Now you can use city transport cards at a huge farmer's market. Nie Xin swipes her card. Transport cards are commonly used in Shanghai to pay Metro, bus, and taxi fares. Now Hangzhou residents can use their transport cards to buy groceries in one farmers' market.
If a pilot project goes well, use of transport cards will be expanded.
Since early June the downtown Zhaohui Farmers' Market on Qijie Street has accepted the cards - the first market in the city to do so. All 316 stalls for 188 vendors have been equipped to handle the debit transactions.
Shoppers can use the City Transport Card issued by the Hangzhou Transport Co, the Citizen Card for transport and the E-card of the Hangzhou Agri-Industries Holdings Co.
This farmers' market is the most important such market for residents, restaurants and hotels in more than 10 neighborhoods in the Zhaohui area.
Huang Suhua usually goes to the market to buy food for dinner on her way back from work. Due to a business trip in June she was unable to shop for a few days and she recently returned to find she could swipe her transport card for bok choy.
"I think it's a good idea to pay with the card, as sometimes I don't have enough small change. It will be more convenient this way," says Huang.
At the entrance of the market, customers can swipe their cards to see a detailed list of their grocery shopping in the past days.
"It's easy to calculate my food expenses," says Huang.
The Hangzhou Zhaohui Farmers' Market was built in 1985 and renovated in 2007. The two-story market covers 2,700 square meters and sells meat, poultry, seafood, fresh fruits and vegetables, dried fruit and nuts, grains, oil and many other products.
More than 10,000 shoppers visit daily and annual sales volume is around 72 million yuan (US$10.5 million).
The Hangzhou City Transport Co spent 500,000 yuan installing the equipment and got each vendor a bank account linked to the card transactions.
Initially some curious customers tried using the cards, but on a recent visit on June 27 very few people were using the cards.
"Most customers are still used to paying with cash. Many even don't know this new method since the project is just beginning," says a vendor surnamed Wang, who sells tofu. In one day only a couple of people use the card at his stall, he says.
"For us, both card and cash are okay, we won't press people to pay with the card," he says.
Vendors are also unfamiliar with the system and some don't turn it on unless customers ask to pay by card.
Using the transport card itself is not as popular in Hangzhou as in Shanghai.
Taxi driver Yang Zhenning says he seldom gets passengers paying with transport cards.
"Most of we Hangzhou people use the card to pay bus fares as it saves time and we don't have to fumble for change. But for taxis, it doesn't make any difference, and there's no discount," he says.
When driver Yang heard that people can now buy tofu with their transport card, he observed, "That's really interestingbut I don't think it'svery necessary."
If a pilot project goes well, use of transport cards will be expanded.
Since early June the downtown Zhaohui Farmers' Market on Qijie Street has accepted the cards - the first market in the city to do so. All 316 stalls for 188 vendors have been equipped to handle the debit transactions.
Shoppers can use the City Transport Card issued by the Hangzhou Transport Co, the Citizen Card for transport and the E-card of the Hangzhou Agri-Industries Holdings Co.
This farmers' market is the most important such market for residents, restaurants and hotels in more than 10 neighborhoods in the Zhaohui area.
Huang Suhua usually goes to the market to buy food for dinner on her way back from work. Due to a business trip in June she was unable to shop for a few days and she recently returned to find she could swipe her transport card for bok choy.
"I think it's a good idea to pay with the card, as sometimes I don't have enough small change. It will be more convenient this way," says Huang.
At the entrance of the market, customers can swipe their cards to see a detailed list of their grocery shopping in the past days.
"It's easy to calculate my food expenses," says Huang.
The Hangzhou Zhaohui Farmers' Market was built in 1985 and renovated in 2007. The two-story market covers 2,700 square meters and sells meat, poultry, seafood, fresh fruits and vegetables, dried fruit and nuts, grains, oil and many other products.
More than 10,000 shoppers visit daily and annual sales volume is around 72 million yuan (US$10.5 million).
The Hangzhou City Transport Co spent 500,000 yuan installing the equipment and got each vendor a bank account linked to the card transactions.
Initially some curious customers tried using the cards, but on a recent visit on June 27 very few people were using the cards.
"Most customers are still used to paying with cash. Many even don't know this new method since the project is just beginning," says a vendor surnamed Wang, who sells tofu. In one day only a couple of people use the card at his stall, he says.
"For us, both card and cash are okay, we won't press people to pay with the card," he says.
Vendors are also unfamiliar with the system and some don't turn it on unless customers ask to pay by card.
Using the transport card itself is not as popular in Hangzhou as in Shanghai.
Taxi driver Yang Zhenning says he seldom gets passengers paying with transport cards.
"Most of we Hangzhou people use the card to pay bus fares as it saves time and we don't have to fumble for change. But for taxis, it doesn't make any difference, and there's no discount," he says.
When driver Yang heard that people can now buy tofu with their transport card, he observed, "That's really interestingbut I don't think it'svery necessary."
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