Plastic gaining ground against cash

Increasingly more people are using cards to pay for their groceries: 12% of payments were made with plastic at Carrefour in the first six months of 2003, up from 8% in 2002 and only 4% in 2001. Other retailers report increases, as well.

However, there is a long way to go until the Romanian market reaches the levels in Germany, for instance, where cards are used for almost one third of purchases. The food stamp is the other non-cash payment alternative, competing against the card.

Supermarkets are offering customers the possibility to use cards, but Romanians are rather reluctant when it comes to giving up the cash in their wallets.

“For the time being, the importance of paying with a card is rather limited, but this method of payment is a service we must provide to our clients,” said Bart Van de Velde, commercial director at Mega Image, a company operating 15 supermarkets in Bucharest, as well as in Ploiesti and Constanta.

On the other hand, payment with cards has become increasingly popular lately, although the actual figures are rather low, if compared with the situation in Western Europe. In fact, the entire trade market in Romania is far behind those in Western Europe, both in terms of structure and maturity.

“We have provided our clients with the possibility to use cards ever since we opened for business, in 2001. In the six months the supermarket operated that year, 4% of the purchases were paid for with cards,” Andreea Mihai, marketing manager at Carrefour Romania, said. According to Mihai, this rate almost doubled in 2002, thus amounting to 8%. Considering that Carrefour reported 100 million euros in sales last year, shopping with cards was worth more than 8 million euros. “In the first half this year, the share of cards amounted to some 12%,” Carrefour’s official added. ionut.bonoiu@zf.ro