#Online Grocery Store in Zimbabwe

[shopexpresszw]

Discovering Freshness: Navigating Harare's Online Grocery Store, ShopExpress

In the bustling city of Harare, Zimbabwe, accessing quality produce can sometimes feel like a daunting task. However, with the advent of online shopping, a new avenue has emerged for residents to procure fresh and top-notch groceries conveniently. Among the array of online grocery stores, ShopExpress stands out as a beacon of reliability and freshness. Unveiling the Convenience of Online…

[newslivesa]

Tiffany Haddish Faces Online Backlash Over Zimbabwe Pick n pay Comments

American actress and comedian Tiffany Haddish has faced criticism on social media after expressing surprise at the presence of modern grocery stores in Zimbabwe. During her recent visit to Harare, the capital city of Zimbabwe. In a recent post, Haddish revealed her astonishment at finding a Pick n Pay supermarket in Harare, a popular South African retail chain. Her comments sparked a heated…

[myzimstore]

[easyfoodnetwork]

Welcome to the Culinary Barter Economy

Photo-illustration: Eater

COVID-19 has led to a growing number of people trading food like sourdough starter and flour with their friends and neighbors

Until about a month ago, Ari Koontz had never traded food with their neighbors in Providence, Rhode Island. But when Koontz decided to leave part of an extra-large batch of chocolate chip cookies on their neighbors’ doorsteps, they received cornbread and other cookies in return. “It was so wonderful to experience this kind of full-hearted reciprocity,” Koontz says — so much so that they began looking for more opportunities to trade. Soon, Koontz was running all over the neighborhood, swapping baguettes, sourdough starters, and pepper seeds for oranges, herbs, and dried beans.

At my own house, in Seattle, a recent Costco impulse purchase of a two-pound bag of active dry yeast quickly became worth its weight in gold. While I happily gave it to anyone who needed some, friends and neighbors kept asking if there was anything they could give me in return. I accepted leeks from a garden, homemade granola, and malt powder for making bagels.

Meanwhile, on Twitter, the television writer Jess Dweck joked that “2020 sounded like the most futuristic year and now we’re all like ‘I traded my neighbor a handkerchief for some carrots.’” More than 70,000 people liked the tweet — most likely because more than a few of them had been busy trading cloth masks for baking powder or bread for milk.

As people have tried to cut down on grocery store trips (and their associated anxieties) since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, trading with neighbors has become an easy, low- or no-contact way to acquire that one missing ingredient for a recipe, find suddenly elusive supplies like yeast, or share brownies that can no longer be brought to an office. And so the informal bartering and trading of ingredients and food has mushroomed, with people using social media networks like NextDoor, Twitter, and Buy Nothing to ask for that pinch of cinnamon or give away extra lemons. “Yeast is selling for like $30-$70 online — does anyone want to trade us yeast,” wrote Twitter user Tori Hinn, who prefaced the request with, “[A sentence I would have never typed one year ago].” In public Facebook groups, posts using the terms “barter” and “trade” during March and April increased more than 250 percent over the same time period last year.

“Barter already appeals to millennials and Gen Z,” says Julie Smith, a principal at the consulting company Point B. These generations, which make up about half the U.S. population, share dresses through companies like Rent the Runway and Armoire, swap baby clothing on Buy Nothing, and purchase resale or upcycled goods on Etsy. This predilection for sharing and reusing, combined with easy access to large groups of neighbors via social media, meant that bartering was already part of life for many in the U.S., and thus poised to catch fire long before the pandemic lit the fuse.

But the instinct to trade during hard times follows a deeply entrenched pattern of human behavior that reasserts itself whenever a country endures a large-scale change to its fortunes. “Uncertainty leads people to conserve cash,” explains David Ortega, a food economist at Michigan State University, citing such examples as hyperinflation in Zimbabwe and Venezuela.

Bartering has provided a way for people to get closer to one another even during a time of required social distancing.

While Ortega isn’t surprised that informal trading has grown in popularity during the COVID-19 pandemic, he’s quick to point out that the pandemic is of a very different nature and scale than these other crises — and that its particular circumstances have created anxieties around food, not cash. “We are not running out of food,” he says, but the switch from eating at work, school, and restaurants to eating at home has led to shortages of certain items. “It’s not as easy as shifting delivery trucks from restaurants to a grocery store in a very short time frame,” Ortega explains. That, along with the tendency of many nervous shoppers to buy in large quantities, and supply chain disruptions related to sick workers, has created what are called stock outs. As a result, some people end up with plenty of flour or yeast, but miss other supplies that their neighbors have.

Still, Ortega says that the gaps in the food supply chain aren’t the only explanation for why we barter. By sharing access to food, he explains, people feel they can connect with a friend or neighbor. “You go to the store, then call a friend and say, ‘Hey, I found eggs, do you need any?’” Bartering, in other words, has provided a way for people to get closer to one another even during a time of required social distancing.

This kind of connection has resonated with Koontz, who was laid off from their job because of the pandemic. Trading has become “not just an act of kindness,” they say, but also — despite Koontz’s own lack of financial resources — “a way to feel like I was supporting my community.” For these reasons, they hope that the bartering trend is here for the long run. “Not just for me personally,” they say, “but [I hope that] our wider communities will continue exploring creative and non-capitalist ways to support one another in times of need.”

While Twitter users may joke about the novelty of bartering (insert Little House on the Prairie punchline here), the practice is hardly new to many communities. Rebecca Adamson, an Indigenous economist and the founder and president of First Peoples Worldwide, a global nonprofit organization, notes that against the backdrop of the pandemic, “we can see the Western economy taking on the lessons or values of an Indigenous economy.” In the former, wealth is often synonymous with money, while the goal of the latter is for everyone in the community to survive and thrive.

Indigenous economies accomplish this through collaboration and cooperation, valuing “the collective efficacy of community,” Adamson says — “much like what we are seeing in the public response to COVID- 19.” While she laments the lack of traditional exchange networks in the market economy, she sees elements of them reflected in the efforts of many people to create barter and trade networks to provide child care, hair styling, garden and farm produce, gourmet foods, carpentry, entertainment, and more. “By mitigating the influence of cash in a community,” Adamson says, “the value of social benefits can be maximized.”

But bartering is generally a short-term fix in times of economic turmoil, Ortega says: When things get even worse, people turn to more extreme solutions, such as parallel currencies, which allow for more flexibility than direct trading. That said, he doesn’t think this new uptick will vanish anytime soon. And so he has a few words of wisdom for anyone interested in participating in the informal culinary barter economy. There’s a reason that “most people begin by trading with the people they know,” Ortega says: They trust that they’re not getting old yeast or spoiled milk. For that reason, he recommends that aspiring barterers also stick with people they know and trust. “Now,” he says, “is not the time to be paying a visit to the ER for a foodborne illness.”

from Eater - All https://ift.tt/2WcU4bm https://ift.tt/3fzq4hi

Photo-illustration: Eater

COVID-19 has led to a growing number of people trading food like sourdough starter and flour with their friends and neighbors

Until about a month ago, Ari Koontz had never traded food with their neighbors in Providence, Rhode Island. But when Koontz decided to leave part of an extra-large batch of chocolate chip cookies on their neighbors’ doorsteps, they received cornbread and other cookies in return. “It was so wonderful to experience this kind of full-hearted reciprocity,” Koontz says — so much so that they began looking for more opportunities to trade. Soon, Koontz was running all over the neighborhood, swapping baguettes, sourdough starters, and pepper seeds for oranges, herbs, and dried beans.

At my own house, in Seattle, a recent Costco impulse purchase of a two-pound bag of active dry yeast quickly became worth its weight in gold. While I happily gave it to anyone who needed some, friends and neighbors kept asking if there was anything they could give me in return. I accepted leeks from a garden, homemade granola, and malt powder for making bagels.

Meanwhile, on Twitter, the television writer Jess Dweck joked that “2020 sounded like the most futuristic year and now we’re all like ‘I traded my neighbor a handkerchief for some carrots.’” More than 70,000 people liked the tweet — most likely because more than a few of them had been busy trading cloth masks for baking powder or bread for milk.

As people have tried to cut down on grocery store trips (and their associated anxieties) since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, trading with neighbors has become an easy, low- or no-contact way to acquire that one missing ingredient for a recipe, find suddenly elusive supplies like yeast, or share brownies that can no longer be brought to an office. And so the informal bartering and trading of ingredients and food has mushroomed, with people using social media networks like NextDoor, Twitter, and Buy Nothing to ask for that pinch of cinnamon or give away extra lemons. “Yeast is selling for like $30-$70 online — does anyone want to trade us yeast,” wrote Twitter user Tori Hinn, who prefaced the request with, “[A sentence I would have never typed one year ago].” In public Facebook groups, posts using the terms “barter” and “trade” during March and April increased more than 250 percent over the same time period last year.

“Barter already appeals to millennials and Gen Z,” says Julie Smith, a principal at the consulting company Point B. These generations, which make up about half the U.S. population, share dresses through companies like Rent the Runway and Armoire, swap baby clothing on Buy Nothing, and purchase resale or upcycled goods on Etsy. This predilection for sharing and reusing, combined with easy access to large groups of neighbors via social media, meant that bartering was already part of life for many in the U.S., and thus poised to catch fire long before the pandemic lit the fuse.

But the instinct to trade during hard times follows a deeply entrenched pattern of human behavior that reasserts itself whenever a country endures a large-scale change to its fortunes. “Uncertainty leads people to conserve cash,” explains David Ortega, a food economist at Michigan State University, citing such examples as hyperinflation in Zimbabwe and Venezuela.

Bartering has provided a way for people to get closer to one another even during a time of required social distancing.

While Ortega isn’t surprised that informal trading has grown in popularity during the COVID-19 pandemic, he’s quick to point out that the pandemic is of a very different nature and scale than these other crises — and that its particular circumstances have created anxieties around food, not cash. “We are not running out of food,” he says, but the switch from eating at work, school, and restaurants to eating at home has led to shortages of certain items. “It’s not as easy as shifting delivery trucks from restaurants to a grocery store in a very short time frame,” Ortega explains. That, along with the tendency of many nervous shoppers to buy in large quantities, and supply chain disruptions related to sick workers, has created what are called stock outs. As a result, some people end up with plenty of flour or yeast, but miss other supplies that their neighbors have.

Still, Ortega says that the gaps in the food supply chain aren’t the only explanation for why we barter. By sharing access to food, he explains, people feel they can connect with a friend or neighbor. “You go to the store, then call a friend and say, ‘Hey, I found eggs, do you need any?’” Bartering, in other words, has provided a way for people to get closer to one another even during a time of required social distancing.

This kind of connection has resonated with Koontz, who was laid off from their job because of the pandemic. Trading has become “not just an act of kindness,” they say, but also — despite Koontz’s own lack of financial resources — “a way to feel like I was supporting my community.” For these reasons, they hope that the bartering trend is here for the long run. “Not just for me personally,” they say, “but [I hope that] our wider communities will continue exploring creative and non-capitalist ways to support one another in times of need.”

While Twitter users may joke about the novelty of bartering (insert Little House on the Prairie punchline here), the practice is hardly new to many communities. Rebecca Adamson, an Indigenous economist and the founder and president of First Peoples Worldwide, a global nonprofit organization, notes that against the backdrop of the pandemic, “we can see the Western economy taking on the lessons or values of an Indigenous economy.” In the former, wealth is often synonymous with money, while the goal of the latter is for everyone in the community to survive and thrive.

Indigenous economies accomplish this through collaboration and cooperation, valuing “the collective efficacy of community,” Adamson says — “much like what we are seeing in the public response to COVID- 19.” While she laments the lack of traditional exchange networks in the market economy, she sees elements of them reflected in the efforts of many people to create barter and trade networks to provide child care, hair styling, garden and farm produce, gourmet foods, carpentry, entertainment, and more. “By mitigating the influence of cash in a community,” Adamson says, “the value of social benefits can be maximized.”

But bartering is generally a short-term fix in times of economic turmoil, Ortega says: When things get even worse, people turn to more extreme solutions, such as parallel currencies, which allow for more flexibility than direct trading. That said, he doesn’t think this new uptick will vanish anytime soon. And so he has a few words of wisdom for anyone interested in participating in the informal culinary barter economy. There’s a reason that “most people begin by trading with the people they know,” Ortega says: They trust that they’re not getting old yeast or spoiled milk. For that reason, he recommends that aspiring barterers also stick with people they know and trust. “Now,” he says, “is not the time to be paying a visit to the ER for a foodborne illness.”

from Eater - All https://ift.tt/2WcU4bm via Blogger https://ift.tt/3bfG3On

[learningtobushmechanic]

Cash is King.

Sunday 9 July 8:02pm

Today I drove through Zims countryside to Bulawayo for 70kms by mistake. It was beautiful. Dry and deserty with rocks and heaps and heaps of goats everywhere. Many donkeys too and whole dirt road shoulders for donkey carts.

When I returned back to to Beitbridge town after my detour I remembered that I needed to get more cash - having spent most of it on the border already.

I filled up with petrol and asked for an ATM. The attendant directed me to a petrol station further back- the guy there said there is no cash but to go to the shop further back. Same thing - no cash. I asked the nearby guard where else I could go and he just simply said it’s Sunday- there won’t be anywhere. He told me to try do a ‘cash-back’ from the Spar. So I went inside and the cashier tells me that I have to buy at least 20$ worth of groceries to get 20$ cash back. And I said if I wanted more - say 50$? Then I had to get 50$ worth of groceries. And I asked her if she’s serious and people in the queue were laughing at how fucked up it was but it was all true.

By the way I have ascertained that the dollar in question is Zimbabwean dollar- but new bond notes that were recently brought into circulation.

So I now cannot get cash out of an ATM. And I can get cash out of a supermarket supposing my card works when swiped- but I’d need to buy groceries. I could also offer to buy someone their groceries and receive their cash payment. I counted my cash. R500 Definitely enough for petrol to masvingo- the halfway point to Harare. And if I slept over there I might hopefully be able to get an open bank with cash in it the next day. I literally don’t know if I’ll be okay. I’ll let you know.

Ps I found four donkey carcasses along the road. Is there an epidemic? Or are they being driven over- they look well fed enough all over. Donkeys are such wonderful big soft lovely things. Seeing one of their limp bodies up close and then being devoured by maggots from the inside is raw. When driving past one you can smell it long before seeing it. With their legs stiff in the air, bellies swollen. I am disconcerted strangely by how they are not being used. They just lie there legs out. Surely then it must be disease? If people are not taking their skins or the meat? Why aren’t they being burnt then or something?

http://m.news24.com/news24/Africa/Zimbabwe/donkey-reflectors-vets-bright-bid-to-stop-zimbabwes-donkey-road-carnage-20170117

According to this article in the guardian they’re literally just run over by drivers at night

Monday 10 July Visa doesn’t work anywhere It’s two PM ive been to three banks stood in queues for hours and hours Everyone says go to Barclays. They don’t take visa either. Petrol stations let me swipe and I get declined every time.

When I came out from the bank I saw my motorcycle was leaking. It was leaking fuel from the tank. It must have been bumped over and put back on its feet by someone. By now I was feeling hot and sweaty and in a big big panic and now this. I took out my tools and tried to clamp the hole down closed. It seemed better. I decided to just put all my cash into fuel tanks and drive to Harare where my friend Liberty would help me sort out this cash crisis. I filled up with my last r200 cash in my fuel bottles. Then liberty messaged me but isn’t it dangerous. And I stopped in my tracks! Yes! Of course it’s dangerous why wasn’t I thinking about how I wanted to drive with a leaking tank that drops fuel over my hot engine- am I a crazy face?

Luckily I have a friend in Harare. I used one of my last dollar coins to buy airtime and called him.

I asked him if there isn’t a way for him to send me money. By cellphone or something. I’ve been seeing a lot of cellphone cash adverts and even saw a news headline about how sex workers accept money transfers on their phones. He thought about it for a bit and said I would have to go get myself registered for eco cash. But all I needed was a copy of my passport and I had this. A tiny smidgeon of hope grew inside me.

I went in search of an ecocash store. I was sent around quite a bit but eventually found one. I luckily had premade copies of ID and everything I needed luckily but they said the number was already registered to someone- so I needed to buy a new one. I gave them a dollar and got 50c in return. Now upon closer inspection I realize someone gave me ten Rand instead of a 2dollar note. So I have less than a dollar, ten Rand note and fifty cents left. I please called me my friend Liberty and I am now sitting on the sidewalk next to my bike reeking of petrol, waiting for him to send me cash. I am planning to head back with my bike to where I stayed last night so I can empty my tank and try plug the tank with steel putty. Hopefully this will work

6:18 pm this was at around two pm Since then my very wonderful partner Sonya had tirelessly been looking into ways of sending me money via money share and western union and all sorts of things- we almost just managed to get cash through western union but they were closing for the day. Sonya googled around and found me a hotel in masvingo that accepts visa and eft and sent me the address. I arrived here feeling half dead having had only a cup of yoghurt for breakfast this morning and this massively crazy day. It’s quite an expensive place even though there isn’t hot water in our communal bathroom. But my card worked and they are giving me supper and breakfast and what can a cashless hobo want more in life than to hold a key to a room where I can put down my things I’ve been guarding on a bike all day, take off my shoes and have kind people find me a bucket to put my fuel into(having stupidly filled my jerry cans earlier). I have sort of managed to look at the tank with my head torch an it seems like it is rusty in those corners and might actually not have been bumped but simply have said a final no-thank-you to life and let the fuel through. There is also when the paint started peeling what seems to be an old brazing weld in a copper color underneath the paintwork. It must have been fixed professionally. I am worried that simply playing with steel putty won’t work because it is such an awkward shape I won’t be able to get it in there properly even

So I think I will leave the can empty for the night and if I have more hope for plugging it tomorrow, do it-else I will attempt to find a radiator fixing place who will be able to do the job. If I cannot find a place I will probably have to plug it best I can and make my way to Harare I’m reading online about all sorts of temporary fixes like plugging it with soap. I have wifi now but could not read about any solutions earlier.

And earlier me would have liked to read this here article: http://m.news24.com/news24/Africa/Zimbabwe/travellers-beware-visa-cards-not-working-in-zimbabwe-20161223

Going to research more money transfer ways. A man who works at the hotel said that Mukuru is a really good way to get cash from South Africa. So I’m looking into it. Didn’t expect that not researching zim properly would leave me so stranded so quickly. I really really wish I knew about this before. Can someone just smack earlier me for me please? Thanks.

[bowsetter]

Zimbabweans Use BTC to Pay for Food Hampers Amid Foreign Currency Crisis

Study263, a Zimbabwean-owned fintech startup operating from South Africa, has opened an online store allowing Zimbabweans to buy food hampers that are delivered directly to their homes. Shoppers have the option to pay for items like cooking oil and baked beans in BTC, Paypal or Ecocash, a local mobile money payment system.

Also Read: Ivy and Hiveex Launch Ivypay to Facilitate Consumer Bill Payments in Australia

As Prices Spiral, Study263 Helps Zimbabweans Import Food Using Bitcoin

The southern African country of Zimbabwe, which adopted the U.S. dollar after abandoning its currency at the height of hyperinflation in 2009, is gripped by a shortage of foreign currency which has seen prices of imported goods spiral in recent weeks.

Some supermarket shelves have emptied as shoppers panic buy, stocking up on essential goods such as mealie meal, beef, bread and cooking oil in fear of a return of the 2008 food and prices crisis. Until recently, fuel was in short supply, and basic foodstuffs remain scarce or are priced out of reach of ordinary people.

Tinashe Jani, co-founder and chief operating officer of Study263, told news.Bitcoin.com that the idea was conceived early October, “when colleagues and family in Zimbabwe started complaining of shortage of basic commodities as prices increased daily.” At the time, for example, the price of cooking oil moved from $3.20 to $20 per two-litre bottle, if available, he said.

“Our regular customers for sending money back home started hinting that the money they are sending isn’t buying much any more and that if only they could send groceries with someone they trust,” said Jani, whose company was founded in 2017, initially to help Zimbabweans studying abroad pay fees with ease using cryptocurrency.

Around mid-October, Study263 tested out the market and received a positive reception. People suggested what grocery items they would want included in the hampers, which are designed to cater for different types of family setups according to income levels.

“We analyzed other players in the market and realised our strength was in our acceptance of all forms of payment, including bitcoin,” Jani stated. ‘We have the mini blue, blue and mega blue hampers, which contain the most basic food commodities. The red hamper caters for toiletries and the purple hamper caters to those who want the more expensive products,” he added.

South African Imports Driving Trade

The goods are imported from neighboring South Africa before they are delivered to the buyer’s home within 10 days of payment. A deal by Study263 with a Harare-based logistics company ensures safe delivery.

To make payment in BTC, shoppers typically send the bitcoin equivalent to a given address, which the company converts to fiat to facilitate purchase of the product on order. Jani said customers have slowly been coming on board  since the service was launched earlier this month.

Study263 will have to pay taxes on imports. But the waiver on import licenses announced by the Zimbabwe government a few weeks ago allows the company to operate without one. The import licenses suspension – enacted as part of efforts to ease basic food shortages – gives holders of free funds to bring in a select number of goods from other countries license-free.

“Our hampers are selected from a variety of shops to ensure affordable pricing. They are also flexible to allow other customers to pick and drop items,” Jani detailed. “In terms of payment, our packages are pegged against the U.S. dollar and upon need to transact we convert to whatever the client wants to use to pay, from Paypal, cryptocurrency and Ecocash.”

Bitcoin Payments Catching on in Africa

Cryptocurrency may be banned in Zimbabwe, but bitcoin is helping ordinary folk make payments bank-free. It makes for a great fit for the more than 10 million Zimbabweans who lack access to basic banking services. And it’s even more beneficial to the banked few, a distrusting lot, who are keen to protect their savings against bank failure, inflation or even political turmoil.

Bitcoin is also being used to pay for TV subscriptions (a service offered by Study263) and accommodation rentals. But above all, it is looked at more as a store of value against fiat currency devaluation, rising inflation and policy uncertainty, as is the case is across much of Africa.

In east Africa, a new deal between digital currency exchange Bitpesa and a Japanese firm shows Kenyans are using bitcoin to pay for used Japanese cars, cosmetics and electrical gadgets. In Nigeria, Sure Remit is helping make cash transfers cheaper and in Ghana some small businesses have started to accept payment in BTC while basic services like buying mobile phone airtime and data can also be done using the digital currency.

What do you think about the Study263 initiative? Let us know in the comments section below.

Images courtesy of Shutterstock.

The Bitcoin universe is vast. So is Bitcoin.com. Check ourWiki, where you can learn everything you were afraid to ask. Or read our news coverage to stay up to date on the latest. Or delve into statistics on our helpful tools page

The post Zimbabweans Use BTC to Pay for Food Hampers Amid Foreign Currency Crisis appeared first on Bitcoin News.

READ MORE http://bit.ly/2DQ4lSP

[savetopnow]

2018-03-16 08 BUSINESS now

BUSINESS

Business Insider

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Trump will reportedly unveil a plan to combat the opioid crisis that includes the death penalty for drug dealers

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Inc

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New York Times Business

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Reddit Business

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[shopexpresszw]

ShopExpress One Place to Buy Groceries and Household Items

Dive into the world of convenience with ShopExpress. As you all know ShopExpress, a one-stop solution for quality and affordability for all types of groceries.At ShopExpress platform you can buy a Special Grocery Packs at just $14.79 and get it delivered your own convenient place across all over the Harare with in a few hours. Explore a curated selection of essential grocery items. Unbox a…

[myzimstore]

Grocery Shopping Store | Online Grocery Shop - Myzimstore We provide grocery items at affordable prices. MyZimStore Offers sauces, spreads, condiments, baking ingredients, rice, mealie meal, noodles, pasta, canned food, etc. Shop now! For more information:-  Grocery Shopping Store

[shirlleycoyle]

Doomsday Prepper Store Has a Hot New Product: Flour

While the global coronavirus pandemic has caused some Americans to consider how to use it to accelerate the collapse of society and others to line up in droves to buy ammunition, one army-surplus store is pushing an unlikely product on its customers: Flour.

KommandoStore, which operates out of St. Paul, Minnesota, is providing all the doomsday goods one would expect. It offers gas masks, protective rubber gloves, premade meals, respirators, and Rhodesian military patches—popular tokens among white supremacists who glorify the former African state, which had a white minority government that brutally ruled over what is now Zimbabwe. It's also hawking a 50-pound bag of flour for less than $25, for the prepper who hasn't bothered to prep.

"It's not the 50s, the food pyramid doesn't go bread, bread, bread, meat, bread anymore," copy on its site reads. "However when the trucks stop rolling and uber eats stops delivering what are you going to do?"

KommandoStore, which declined to comment on its sale of Rhodesian military patches, told VICE that it wasn’t able to respond to press inquiries because it was “prioritizing our existing effort to distribute PPE inventory at cost to hospitals/EMS etc.” Recently, it said it had diverted a stash of personal protective equipment worth over $300,000 to hospitals and emergency services after a Twitter follower accused the store of "spreading fear" and being in position to profit from the pandemic.

That it would be getting into the flour game, though, makes a certain amount of sense.

As hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people stock up on whatever they can buy (flooding survival stores in the progress), preppers are finally getting their chance to see how they’re planning has held up. Some are doing their best to use what they learned to help others get through the pandemic. Others look down at the lowly “panic buyers.” Many, though, are coming to the realization that maybe, just maybe, they didn’t prepare all that well themselves.

The pitch for flour stockpiling—not typically offered at Army-surplus stores—comes on the heels of the booming bread craze, which has caused flour shortages in some grocery stores in the U.S. These stores are popular among doomsday preppers, who buy purportedly essential survival gear like gas masks, army-certified attire, and long-lasting food rations.

Plenty of vendors are offering variants of military Meals Ready to Eat (MREs). Bradley’s Surplus, for example, a popular army-surplus store, lists MREs as one of its current best sellers. My Patriot Supply, a well-known prepper site that proclaims “It's Not Just Food, It's Freedom,” is advertising a 30-day food supply package stacked with flour products called the “Ready Hour,” but has sold out of its emergency crates of food and survival tools.

For its part, KommandoStore offers mass bundles for preppers looking to stockpile up to 500 days worth of wheat flour for multiple people.

"While many people already have 3 or 6 months of emergency food on hand," the site's sales pitch reads, "many many households have been caught off guard by recent events—and many people are scrambling to play catch up." It goes on to suggest over 13 uses for flour, including pound cake, gougere, and pasta.

Recent posts online within the doomsday prepper community suggest deep concerns about what they're eating in these times of coronavirus pandemic—and lots of people who could use a good pound cake. Some, it seems, may just have misjudged just how many supplies they needed to feed themselves in their personal stockpiles.

In a post on a prepper subreddit, one user lamented how fast their supplies were already dwindling.

“Is anyone else shocked by how quickly their prep supplies go when they actually use them? It’s actually quite alarming,” wrote user best_damn_milkshake. “What I thought was a three month supply of beef/chicken/pork and canned veggies and fruit is turning out to be about a month and a half. It’s making me realize if this lockdown situation gets much worse we’re totally and completely fucked.”

It’s unsurprising, of course, that worries run rampant on a subreddit dedicated to a community based around worrying about a future event. The struggle, though, is real.

“I guess prepping was more of a fun hobby to keep my time occupied, but now that it may be a trait that is useful I feel like a novice,” wrote another user who had to go to the store because they forgot to stock up on pet food and cans.

While preparing to have the essentials during a time like this is prudent, some preppers exude an almost overwhelming aurora of smugness. Many have used online forums to express their glee about how well they’re handling the pandemic and ridicule those who used to mock them. One long-time user actually bailed on the community because it became “too full of smug and down-talk.”

However, even among these (more or less) diligent preppers, there are those who still fear for what the future holds. In one discussion, entitled “I thought I’d prepped and now I realize just how bad I prepped and I can’t wait for this shit to end and go back to school and work. No, seriously,” a poster said he “can’t enjoy the smug feeling” as he's “not as prepared as I thought I was.”

“While I am more prepared than most people, I’m also screwed in more aspects than I thought I’d be,” they wrote. “I need to get my degree to actually start prepping for an emergency. I need to get my firearms license finished. I need to get my driver's license and get my vehicle. I need to buy my own property (after my degree) and I need to get my head out of my ass and watch less post-apocalyptic/the system goes to shit movies.”

One of the main complaints that appear on the subreddit has to do with how the preppers have planned for everything except for the economic repercussions that come with a shit-hits-the-fan scenario.

“So I am a hobby prepper, planned out 90 days of quality food and another 60 days of crapola, and enough protection to outlast my odds of living through trying,” wrote one user. “However, I have failed in one critical area. Work.

“Hot air balloon ride companies are the ultimate non-essential.”

Follow Ben Makuch and Mack Lamoureux on Twitter.

Doomsday Prepper Store Has a Hot New Product: Flour syndicated from https://triviaqaweb.wordpress.com/feed/

[easyfoodnetwork]

Photo-illustration: Eater COVID-19 has led to a growing number of people trading food like sourdough starter and flour with their friends and neighbors Until about a month ago, Ari Koontz had never traded food with their neighbors in Providence, Rhode Island. But when Koontz decided to leave part of an extra-large batch of chocolate chip cookies on their neighbors’ doorsteps, they received cornbread and other cookies in return. “It was so wonderful to experience this kind of full-hearted reciprocity,” Koontz says — so much so that they began looking for more opportunities to trade. Soon, Koontz was running all over the neighborhood, swapping baguettes, sourdough starters, and pepper seeds for oranges, herbs, and dried beans. At my own house, in Seattle, a recent Costco impulse purchase of a two-pound bag of active dry yeast quickly became worth its weight in gold. While I happily gave it to anyone who needed some, friends and neighbors kept asking if there was anything they could give me in return. I accepted leeks from a garden, homemade granola, and malt powder for making bagels. Meanwhile, on Twitter, the television writer Jess Dweck joked that “2020 sounded like the most futuristic year and now we’re all like ‘I traded my neighbor a handkerchief for some carrots.’” More than 70,000 people liked the tweet — most likely because more than a few of them had been busy trading cloth masks for baking powder or bread for milk. As people have tried to cut down on grocery store trips (and their associated anxieties) since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, trading with neighbors has become an easy, low- or no-contact way to acquire that one missing ingredient for a recipe, find suddenly elusive supplies like yeast, or share brownies that can no longer be brought to an office. And so the informal bartering and trading of ingredients and food has mushroomed, with people using social media networks like NextDoor, Twitter, and Buy Nothing to ask for that pinch of cinnamon or give away extra lemons. “Yeast is selling for like $30-$70 online — does anyone want to trade us yeast,” wrote Twitter user Tori Hinn, who prefaced the request with, “[A sentence I would have never typed one year ago].” In public Facebook groups, posts using the terms “barter” and “trade” during March and April increased more than 250 percent over the same time period last year. “Barter already appeals to millennials and Gen Z,” says Julie Smith, a principal at the consulting company Point B. These generations, which make up about half the U.S. population, share dresses through companies like Rent the Runway and Armoire, swap baby clothing on Buy Nothing, and purchase resale or upcycled goods on Etsy. This predilection for sharing and reusing, combined with easy access to large groups of neighbors via social media, meant that bartering was already part of life for many in the U.S., and thus poised to catch fire long before the pandemic lit the fuse. But the instinct to trade during hard times follows a deeply entrenched pattern of human behavior that reasserts itself whenever a country endures a large-scale change to its fortunes. “Uncertainty leads people to conserve cash,” explains David Ortega, a food economist at Michigan State University, citing such examples as hyperinflation in Zimbabwe and Venezuela. Bartering has provided a way for people to get closer to one another even during a time of required social distancing. While Ortega isn’t surprised that informal trading has grown in popularity during the COVID-19 pandemic, he’s quick to point out that the pandemic is of a very different nature and scale than these other crises — and that its particular circumstances have created anxieties around food, not cash. “We are not running out of food,” he says, but the switch from eating at work, school, and restaurants to eating at home has led to shortages of certain items. “It’s not as easy as shifting delivery trucks from restaurants to a grocery store in a very short time frame,” Ortega explains. That, along with the tendency of many nervous shoppers to buy in large quantities, and supply chain disruptions related to sick workers, has created what are called stock outs. As a result, some people end up with plenty of flour or yeast, but miss other supplies that their neighbors have. Still, Ortega says that the gaps in the food supply chain aren’t the only explanation for why we barter. By sharing access to food, he explains, people feel they can connect with a friend or neighbor. “You go to the store, then call a friend and say, ‘Hey, I found eggs, do you need any?’” Bartering, in other words, has provided a way for people to get closer to one another even during a time of required social distancing. This kind of connection has resonated with Koontz, who was laid off from their job because of the pandemic. Trading has become “not just an act of kindness,” they say, but also — despite Koontz’s own lack of financial resources — “a way to feel like I was supporting my community.” For these reasons, they hope that the bartering trend is here for the long run. “Not just for me personally,” they say, “but [I hope that] our wider communities will continue exploring creative and non-capitalist ways to support one another in times of need.” While Twitter users may joke about the novelty of bartering (insert Little House on the Prairie punchline here), the practice is hardly new to many communities. Rebecca Adamson, an Indigenous economist and the founder and president of First Peoples Worldwide, a global nonprofit organization, notes that against the backdrop of the pandemic, “we can see the Western economy taking on the lessons or values of an Indigenous economy.” In the former, wealth is often synonymous with money, while the goal of the latter is for everyone in the community to survive and thrive. Indigenous economies accomplish this through collaboration and cooperation, valuing “the collective efficacy of community,” Adamson says — “much like what we are seeing in the public response to COVID- 19.” While she laments the lack of traditional exchange networks in the market economy, she sees elements of them reflected in the efforts of many people to create barter and trade networks to provide child care, hair styling, garden and farm produce, gourmet foods, carpentry, entertainment, and more. “By mitigating the influence of cash in a community,” Adamson says, “the value of social benefits can be maximized.” But bartering is generally a short-term fix in times of economic turmoil, Ortega says: When things get even worse, people turn to more extreme solutions, such as parallel currencies, which allow for more flexibility than direct trading. That said, he doesn’t think this new uptick will vanish anytime soon. And so he has a few words of wisdom for anyone interested in participating in the informal culinary barter economy. There’s a reason that “most people begin by trading with the people they know,” Ortega says: They trust that they’re not getting old yeast or spoiled milk. For that reason, he recommends that aspiring barterers also stick with people they know and trust. “Now,” he says, “is not the time to be paying a visit to the ER for a foodborne illness.” from Eater - All https://ift.tt/2WcU4bm

http://easyfoodnetwork.blogspot.com/2020/05/welcome-to-culinary-barter-economy.html

[letsarnoldpaynezimbabwe-blog]

Arnold Payne Zimbabwe Get Fit Quickly: Tips To Get In Shape In No Time

Arnold Payne Zimbabwe Proficient tips provider.  Have you reached a fitness plateau where you are dissatisfied with your workout and fitness routine? If the desire to remain fit has waned, you need a few tips to get yourself mentally boosted and back on track. If you can't get motivated and inspired, this will lead to giving up on your exercise plan, so be sure to read the following tips and find your way back into a fitness groove.

A great tip to stay fit is to follow a proven workout program. There are plenty of quality workout programs online and you can also find them in magazines such as Muscle & Fitness and Men's Fitness. Don't just blindly follow a workout program. You want to know that a workout program is effective.

One way to maximize your fitness routine is to work out with a friend. This will help with positive thinking and also help to push you further than you might have gone otherwise. Humans typically are competitive in nature. This will add a sense of camaraderie and competition to your workouts.

Do not weight train two days in a row. When exercising your muscles, be careful about working particular muscle groups too often and too much. After weight training, allow your muscles at least 48 hours to recover. Anything more does more harm than good. You won't see any favorable results.

Arnold Payne Zimbabwe Specialized tips provider.   If the place you need to go to is within walking distance, walk there. If you live in an area where being on the road without a car is safe, do so. Walk to the store rather than driving there. If you own a bike, ride your bike there.

Following a regular fitness routine is a great way to help reduce stress. By channelling any negative energy into exercise, the body releases endorphins into your bloodstream, relieving stress, loosening tense muscles and improving your overall mood. Choose a moderate intensity fitness routine that you enjoy and exercise 3 to 5 times a week, for about 30 minutes per session.

By varying exercise activities, one can maximize the benefits their body receives. Someone who typically runs daily should switch things up and go with aerobics, using a jump rope or strength training the next day. The different kinds of stress that the different exercises put on the body will yield different results. Varying the exercises you do prevents the body from acclimatizing itself to one specific exercises, which can reduce its effectiveness.

A great way to get fit is to join a recreational basketball team. All of the running up and down the court will guarantee you'll get in shape. Joining a recreational basketball team can also be a lot of fun if you have friends that join it also.

Keep track of your workouts. Keeping a daily or weekly log, tracking all of your workouts, ensures that you are making progress in your exercises and it will help hold you accountable. Write down things, such as duration, frequency, weight sizes and sets, reps and how your workout made you feel.

In any kind of football, most people have trouble trying to shake their defender when going out to catch the ball. A good tip to do this is to stay as close as possible to him, then shorter your strides to allow you to cut in and out easier to catch the ball.

When you are performing chin-ups, you should imagine pulling your elbows down as hard as you can. Do not think about pulling yourself up because this will make the exercise seem harder. When thinking about pulling your elbows down, chin-ups seem a lot more doable. Watch your numbers go up as you apply this technique.

Arnold Payne Zimbabwe Best service provider.  Satisfy your cravings. After a workout, your muscles will be craving proteins, but your brain will want sugar. Have them both to make sure you don't sabotage your workout later with a binge. Limit your sugar intake to about twenty grams, as that should be enough to settle the cravings your body has.

Don't give up on your fitness routine until you've been at it for at least a month. Your body generally requires about thirty days to become accustomed to new changes. Keep focused and motivated for that first month, and you'll find your routine will get increasingly easier to maintain after that.

A good fitness tip for people who lift weights is to stretch the muscle that you have just worked out between each set. Studies have shown that people who stretch between sets increase their strength by up to twenty percent. This strategy should be implemented by all weight lifters everywhere.

When it comes to fitness, small changes make a big difference. If you aren't the type to suddenly work an hour of Zumba dance into your schedule, don't despair. There are a lot of little things you can do to greatly improve your health and sense of well-being! Eat a piece of fruit each day - even better is to vary the fruit from day to day to maximize nutrients. Walk one flight of stairs in your home or office. Park your car at the far edge of the parking lot when you go to the grocery store and walk briskly towards the store. Small efforts can add up to big changes - so get started today!

Arnold Payne Zimbabwe Qualified tips provider.  Working out is important to health. To improve the cardiovascular workout, try to exercise all of the muscle groups of the body to get the most benefit. Different types of exercise like lifting weights, walking and stair climbing, are great exercises that work many different muscle groups that will balance out and improve the overall fitness of the body.

While everyone has experienced a time where keeping fit is put on the back burner. By following the simple tips of this article, you should be back on the road to working out and feeling great again. Before you know it, you will be back in charge of your fitness program and looking forward to your next workout.

[heckyeahlucilleballilovelucy]

Mastercard introduces fingerprint authentication in South Africa

Mastercard has released a biometric card that uses the holder’s fingerprint to authorize in-store payments without requiring a PIN or signature. Stores don’t need new hardware, because the card comes with an in-built fingerprint scanner and works with any EMV terminal.

“Consumers are increasingly experiencing the convenience and security of biometrics,” said Ajay Bhalla, president, enterprise risk and security, Mastercard. “Whether unlocking a smartphone or shopping online, the fingerprint is helping to deliver additional convenience and security. It’s not something that can be taken or replicated and will help our cardholders get on with their lives knowing their payments are protected.”

By implementing single-touch authentication, Mastercard aims to simplify in-store payments and offer customers a personalized shopping experience, but also detect and prevent fraud more efficiently. The technology will be tested across South Africa in collaboration with Absa Bank and Pick n Pay.

The grocery chain has 1,500 stores in South Africa and operates in other African countries, including Zimbabwe, Namibia, Botswana, Zambia, Swaziland and Lesotho. Further trials are also planned for Europe and Asia Pacific, with a full roll out by the end of the year.

Criminals will still be able to use stolen cards and carry out biometric data breaches if fingerprints are leaked. In 2015, hackers breached the database of the US Office of Personnel Management and stole approximately 5.6 million fingerprints that could be used for illicit activities. Considering how easy it is to fake fingerprints, fingerprint-based payments may not be as successful as expected in preventing fraud.

from HOTforSecurity http://ift.tt/2qO3xVe

[newstfionline]

The rise of the cashless city: ‘There is this real danger of exclusion’

Adam Forrest, The Guardian, 9 January 2017

Scrolling through my online bank statements at Christmas, I was surprised to find I had not removed cash from an ATM for well over four months. Thanks to the ubiquity of electronic payment systems, it has become increasingly easy to glide around London to a chorus of approving bleeps.

As more shops and transport networks adapt to contactless card and touch-and-go mobile technology, many major cities around the world are in the process of relegating cash to second-class status. Some London shops and cafes are now, like the capital’s buses, simply refusing to handle notes or coins.

Could we see a whole city go cash-free? From Seoul to Bergamo, cities big and small are at the forefront of a global drive to go digital. Many of us are happy to tap cards or phones to hop on a bus, buy a coffee or pay for groceries, but it raises the prospect of a time we no longer carry any cash at all.

No spare change for the busker at the station, the person sleeping rough in need of a hot drink, the market trader, the donation box. Although even on-street charity fundraisers are now broaching the world of contactless payments, what might the rise of the cashless city mean for street vendors, small merchants and the poorest inhabitants?

Some experts now fear a two-tier urban realm in which those on the lowest incomes become disconnected from mainstream commercial life by their dependence on traditional forms of currency.

“The beauty of cash is that it’s a direct and simple transaction between all kinds of different people, no matter how rich or poor,” explains financial writer Dominic Frisby. “If you begin to insist on cashlessness, it does put pressure on you to be banked and signed up to financial system, and many of the poorest are likely to remain outside of that system. So there is this real danger of exclusion.”

Ajay Banga, Mastercard’s CEO, has spoken about the growing global risk of “creating islands, where the unbanked transact [only] with each other”.

In India, the question of how the poorest might connect with the digitised world of the middle-class consumer is now of central importance. In November, the prime minister Narendra Modi announced the removal of 500 and 1000 rupee notes from circulation. Part of a wider attempt to jolt the nation into joining the cashless revolution, Modi’s government believes restricting currency and pushing the take-up of electronic payment will help tackle corruption and regulate India’s untaxed, “black” economy.

Saurabh Shukla, the Delhi-based editor in chief at NewsMobile Asia, says he has seen many small “mom and pop” store owners introduce card readers and learn how to use Paytm, a mobile payment platform, over the past two months.

“They realise a big change is here and they are trying to adjust to electronic payment,” he explains. “But they still want to convert back to cash at the end of the working day or the working week. It will be a gradual adjustment. We might not be able to create a completely cashless India, but we can aim to create a low cash economy.”

Modi is encouraging state government to create “smart” cities by connecting their public services with the latest online technology. Officials are aiming to make the Chandigarh--famously designed by modernist architect Le Corbusier--India’s first cashless city by insisting all bills are paid electronically at government offices. And the government of Goa is attempting to turn its capital Panjim cash-free by offering discounts in digitally bought services like train tickets, and by setting up classrooms to teach small traders e-payment technology.

Yet huge queues remain outside banks as many Indians continue to demand cash. Some of the poorest street vendors cannot afford card readers, and have struggled to operate Paytm payment transfers on their mobile phones.

Aires Rodrigues, a human rights lawyer in Goa, says traders in Panjim are suffering. Rickshaw drivers and fish market sellers have been left with no way of accepting payment from middle-class customers now inclined to do everything digitally. “It’s senseless to try to make everyone go cashless,” says Rodrigues. “The government seems to have lost sight of the plight of the common man.”

If India’s urbanites are being forced to undergo digital shock therapy, city dwellers in much of Europe have been moving steadily away from cash. Consumers like convenience. Governments like the idea of tax transparency. And retailers like cutting down on the costs of cash handling.

According to a recent report by Fung Global Retail & Technology, nine of the top 15 “most digital-ready” countries are in Europe. It predicts Sweden could become the world’s first completely cashless society. Niklas Arvidsson at Stockholm’s KTH Royal Institute of Technology thinks it could happen by 2030.

Yet even Sweden has seen an enthusiasm gap emerge, mostly along demographic lines. Older people in the rural north, tending to be the least tech-savvy, resent the economic power of Stockholm and Gothenburg, now almost entirely cash-free urban zones. The National Pensioners Organisation is a key player in the “Cash Uprising” coalition now campaigning to make sure older Swedes can still deposit and remove cash from banks.

Wealth, however, remains the key factor in determining who might be entirely left behind by the evolving digital economy. Some of the poorest people in Europe’s richest cities have found themselves pushed aside.

In Amsterdam, homeless people selling street magazine Z!, the Dutch equivalent of The Big Issue, now struggle to find customers still using cash. Z! trialled card payments by giving a dozen of the city’s vendors iZettle readers back in 2013, but the method was deemed too cumbersome.

“After a few weeks, our vendors said, ‘Look, this is too complicated’,” says editor Hans van Dalfsen. “It became too clunky and time-consuming for the vendor to juggle their magazines, the card reader and their own mobile phone connected to Bluetooth--all that stuff was needed to carry out the transaction.”

Van Dalfsen says he is now talking to a major telecoms company to try to find a simpler way for homeless vendors to accept payment using only their mobile phones, perhaps with help of unique QR code on their ID badge.

Like many of the world’s poorest people, much of Amsterdam’s homeless population remain without a bank account. So even if they own a mobile phone, most fall back to cash.

Kenya may offer a guiding light here, having found a way to allow unbanked citizens access into the cashless society using cheap mobiles. Launched in 2007, M-Pesa has become the world’s leading mobile money platform, allowing millions of users to transfer money to each other by sending text messages and store their funds digitally without opening a conventional bank account.

In Zimbabwe, last year’s cash liquidity crisis led to renewed distrust in the banks and helped mobile money platforms take off as an alternative way of doing business, first in the capital city Harare, then in rural areas. The country’s most popular text-based service EcoCash now has more than six million users.

“There has been a huge explosion in cashless payments, down to the very poorest street traders using mobile money solutions,” says Nigel Gambanga, a Harare-based technology analyst. “Everyone has begun to realise, ‘If I don’t figure this out, I might not be in business tomorrow.’ People are adaptable.”

Dave Birch, director of innovation at UK firm Consult Hyperion, thinks it would be foolish to insist on clinging on to cash on behalf of the poor. “If you keep people trapped in a cash economy, you leave them to pay higher prices for everything, you leave them struggling to access credit, and more vulnerable to theft,” he says.

“We’re going to replace cash with electronic platforms,” Birch adds. “I don’t think poverty or being unbanked is necessarily a barrier, because everyone has a phone. Given the technology we have, we can develop new ways of moving digital cash around, even on the most basic of phones.”

The challenge for banks, regulators, tech innovators and officials keen to push forward “smart city” initiatives, is to make sure evolving platforms are accessible and keep everyone interconnected.

If we cannot find a common payment ecosystem, we may find ourselves wandering through divided cities, separated by the sound of bleeps and the shuffling of cold, hard cash.

[viralhottopics]

The rise of the cashless city: ‘There is this real danger of exclusion’

Cities from Sweden to India are pushing for a totally cash-free society. But as more shops and transport networks insist on electronic payments, where does this leave the smallest traders and poorest inhabitants?

Scrolling through my online bank statements at Christmas, I was surprised to find I had not removed cash from an ATM for well over four months. Thanks to the ubiquity of electronic payment systems, it has become increasingly easy to glide around London to a chorus of approving bleeps.

As more shops and transport networks adapt to contactless card and touch-and-go mobile technology, many major cities around the world are in the process of relegating cash to second-class status. Some London shops and cafes are now, like the capitals buses, simply refusing to handle notes or coins.

Could we see a whole city go cash-free? From Seoul to Bergamo, cities big and small are at the forefront of a global drive to go digital. Many of us are happy to tap cards or phones to hop on a bus, buy a coffee or pay for groceries, but it raises the prospect of a time we no longer carry any cash at all.

No spare change for the busker at the station, the person sleeping rough in need of a hot drink, the market trader, the donation box. Although even on-street charity fundraisers are now broaching the world of contactless payments, what might the rise of the cashless city mean for street vendors, small merchants and the poorest inhabitants?

Some experts now fear a two-tier urban realm in which those on the lowest incomes become disconnected from mainstream commercial life by their dependence on traditional forms of currency.

The beauty of cash is that its a direct and simple transaction between all kinds of different people, no matter how rich or poor, explains financial writer Dominic Frisby. If you begin to insist on cashlessness, it does put pressure on you to be banked and signed up to financial system, and many of the poorest are likely to remain outside of that system. So there is this real danger of exclusion.

Ajay Banga, Mastercards CEO, has spoken about the growing global risk of creating islands, where the unbanked transact [only] with each other.

In India, the question of how the poorest might connect with the digitised world of the middle-class consumer is now of central importance. In November, the prime minister Narendra Modi announced the removal of 500 and 1000 rupee notes from circulation. Part of a wider attempt to jolt the nation into joining the cashless revolution, Modis government believes restricting currency and pushing the take-up of electronic payment will help tackle corruption and regulate Indias untaxed, black economy.

It has become increasingly easy to glide around London to a chorus of approving bleeps. Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty Images

Saurabh Shukla, the Delhi-based editor in chief at NewsMobile Asia, says he has seen many small mom and pop store owners introduce card readers and learn how to use Paytm, a mobile payment platform, over the past two months.

They realise a big change is here and they are trying to adjust to electronic payment, he explains. But they still want to convert back to cash at the end of the working day or the working week. It will be a gradual adjustment. We might not be able to create a completely cashless India, but we can aim to create a low cash economy.

Modi is encouraging state government to create smart cities by connecting their public services with the latest online technology. Officials are aiming to make the Chandigarh famously designed by modernist architect Le Corbusier Indias first cashless city by insisting all bills are paid electronically at government offices. And the government of Goa is attempting to turn its capital Panjim cash-free by offering discounts in digitally bought services like train tickets, and by setting up classrooms to teach small traders e-payment technology.

Yet huge queues remain outside banks as many Indians continue to demand cash. Some of the poorest street vendors cannot afford card readers, and have struggled to operate Paytm payment transfers on their mobile phones.

Aires Rodrigues, a human rights lawyer in Goa, says traders in Panjim are suffering. Rickshaw drivers and fish market sellers have been left with no way of accepting payment from middle-class customers now inclined to do everything digitally. Its senseless to try to make everyone go cashless, says Rodrigues. The government seems to have lost sight of the plight of the common man.

If Indias urbanites are being forced to undergo digital shock therapy, city dwellers in much of Europe have been moving steadily away from cash. Consumers like convenience. Governments like the idea of tax transparency. And retailers like cutting down on the costs of cash handling.

People queue to withdraw cash at a bank in Lucknow, India, after prime minister Narendra Modi announced the elimination of the 500 and 1,000 rupee bills. Photograph: Pawan Kumar/Reuters

According to a recent report by Fung Global Retail & Technology, nine of the top 15 most digital-ready countries are in Europe. It predicts Sweden could become the worlds first completely cashless society. Niklas Arvidsson at Stockholms KTH Royal Institute of Technology thinks it could happen by 2030.

Yet even Sweden has seen an enthusiasm gap emerge, mostly along demographic lines. Older people in the rural north, tending to be the least tech-savvy, resent the economic power of Stockholm and Gothenburg, now almost entirely cash-free urban zones. The National Pensioners Organisation is a key player in the Cash Uprising coalition now campaigning to make sure older Swedes can still deposit and remove cash from banks.

Wealth, however, remains the key factor in determining who might be entirely left behind by the evolving digital economy. Some of the poorest people in Europes richest cities have found themselves pushed aside.

In Amsterdam, homeless people selling street magazine Z!, the Dutch equivalent of The Big Issue, now struggle to find customers still using cash. Z! trialled card payments by giving a dozen of the citys vendors iZettle readers back in 2013, but the method was deemed too cumbersome.

After a few weeks, our vendors said, Look, this is too complicated, says editor Hans van Dalfsen. It became too clunky and time-consuming for the vendor to juggle their magazines, the card reader and their own mobile phone connected to Bluetooth all that stuff was needed to carry out the transaction.

Van Dalfsen says he is now talking to a major telecoms company to try to find a simpler way for homeless vendors to accept payment using only their mobile phones, perhaps with help of unique QR code on their ID badge.

The M-Pesa banking service in Kenya allows people without bank accounts to transfer funds using mobile phones. Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty Images

Like Scandinavia, we are close to being cashless in Amsterdam, he says. Im an optimist, but we really need bright people in the tech companies to come up with simple, convenient solutions that work for everyone. We cannot let people become cut off from the life of the city.

Like many of the worlds poorest people, much of Amsterdams homeless population remain without a bank account. So even if they own a mobile phone, most fall back to cash.

Kenya may offer a guiding light here, having found a way to allow unbanked citizens access into the cashless society using cheap mobiles. Launched in 2007, M-Pesa has become the worlds leading mobile money platform, allowing millions of users to transfer money to each other by sending text messages and store their funds digitally without opening a conventional bank account.

In Zimbabwe, last years cash liquidity crisis led to renewed distrust in the banks and helped mobile money platforms take off as an alternative way of doing business, first in the capital city Harare, then in rural areas. The countrys most popular text-based service EcoCash now has more than six million users.

There has been a huge explosion in cashless payments, down to the very poorest street traders using mobile money solutions, says Nigel Gambanga, a Harare-based technology analyst. Everyone has begun to realise, If I dont figure this out, I might not be in business tomorrow. People are adaptable.

Dave Birch, director of innovation at UK firm Consult Hyperion, thinks it would be foolish to insist on clinging on to cash on behalf of the poor. If you keep people trapped in a cash economy, you leave them to pay higher prices for everything, you leave them struggling to access credit, and more vulnerable to theft, he says.

Were going to replace cash with electronic platforms, Birch adds. I dont think poverty or being unbanked is necessarily a barrier, because everyone has a phone. Given the technology we have, we can develop new ways of moving digital cash around, even on the most basic of phones.

The challenge for banks, regulators, tech innovators and officials keen to push forward smart city initiatives, is to make sure evolving platforms are accessible and keep everyone interconnected.

If we cannot find a common payment ecosystem, we may find ourselves wandering through divided cities, separated by the sound of bleeps and the shuffling of cold, hard cash.

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from The rise of the cashless city: ‘There is this real danger of exclusion’

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