Hawker at Chinatown Food Complex says they sometimes ‘get cheated’ by cashless payment methods

Singapore — A hawker with a stall at Chinatown Food Complex took to social media to gripe about how he and many other hawkers were “cheated” by customers paying through the use of a QR code.

In a Facebook post on the Warung Soto page, the owner wrote: “Today was a quiet day at Chinatown Food Complex. Many stalls were closed. Not sure what was the occasion though”.

The owner added that at 1 pm, a man came and ordered food for S$8.30. After scanning the stall’s QR code, the hawker added that the man showed him the screen of his phone, took the food and left.

The hawker wrote: “BRO, I hope you liked the Nasi Goreng Tomyum and Macaroni Bakso. But sad to say your payment did not go through”. He explained that usually for cashless transactions, the payment goes through within 10 seconds. “Didn’t see any $8.30 in the payment received history. It’s 10.45pm now”.

The hawker added that he hoped it was a technical fault and requested that the man come down the next day. He also noted that it was the man’s first visit to the stall, as it was the first time he saw that customer. “Many hawkers have complained about getting cheated by customers who paid via QR. I do hope I don’t face the same fate!” the hawker wrote.

The Singapore Government has been encouraging the adoption of cashless modes of payment across various domains and industries, including the food and beverage (F&B) sector. However, despite the introduction of many initiatives to push the economy towards cashless transactions, usage rates remain persistently low compared to cash payments, especially in small business establishments, small F&B outlets and hawker centres, a CNA article reported earlier this year.

It added that hawkers, in general, are senior citizens who are relatively less educated and less technology savvy. And press reports have also noted that hawkers prefer to have cash in hand because most of their suppliers also demand cash. /TISG