India’s offline retailers have been among the worst hit from the ensuing currency shortfall. But Big Bazaar, the biggest retailer in the country, is doing its bit to help citizens out.
Big Bazaar has tied up with State Bank of India and enabled mini ATMs across all 260 stores to help consumers withdraw cash while they shop.
Now one can withdraw 2000rs from bigbazaar using your debit card from this Thursday onwards pic.twitter.com/UH3BjLZbra
— Kishore Biyani (@kishore_biyani) November 22, 2016
Kishore Biyani says that the cash for the exercise is obtained from customer sales. The money received from those who pay in cash is given back to customers who choose to withdraw it.
Cash being dispensed at bigbazaar is the money received from sales of customers being circulated back to customers, no withdrawal from bank
— Kishore Biyani (@kishore_biyani) November 23, 2016
Biyani is a canny businessman, and has seen an opportunity where others would’ve seen disaster. Offline chains are the worst hit from the government’s demonetization move, with people not having enough cash to make purchases. It’s here that he’s put Big Bazaar’s scale into good use. Being a huge national chain, Big Bazaar would have longstanding agreements with distributors, and these payments would be likely made through digital means. As such, unlike smaller businessmen, it has no immediate need of ready cash. By letting customers withdraw cash that’s paid at Big Bazaar outlets, he’s given potential customers the best carrot they could’ve got in recent times – the ability to withdraw cash.
And the move is expected to help Big Bazaar’s sales. Customers can not only do their shopping at the chain, but can also withdraw money. Now that’s better than any discount offer in recent times.