15/08/2008

Store Value Card for Food

Last week, we decided to pop by at Jurong Point. We seldom head over there because most of the time that mall is always packed with people. But it is a very good place for shopping because of the variety of retail and food. We love the foodstalls at the Kopitiam food court too. It has always been difficult to find seating places there. One has to wait for a while during peak period.

What I like about the Kopitiam concept usually is that they use a store value card for purchase. That really made things easier. Instead of digging for cash or coins, all we need is just to give them the card and they will deduct the value from our card. It's been about 2 years Kopitiam uses this concept. Initially many people did not accept this form of payment and felt that they had to pay so much upfront to top up the card. But if you are a regular, you can upgrade your initial pink card after using more than $10 and get a blue card that offers you a discount of 10% for every purchase at Kopitiam. This store value card can be used on all Kopitiam outlets.

I read that this store value option was actually done in a pilot phase in some schools before Kopitiam. In fact, our transportation EZlink card can be used in some food outlets like McDonalds fast food outlets. So other than using it for your Bus and MRT ride, you can use it to buy your McDonalds meals. If only they would consolidate all the card together.. because in Singapore I feel that going cashless is fine but there are just too many cards to carry!

5 comments:

Piggy said...

The concept sounds like debit card to me :)

jepunlauee said...

this is a good idea..using tis card..lets hope in future we will be able to do all this at all shops..no need to worry about not carring enough cash,on tat day...

Constance Chan said...

piggy - i'm not quite sure about 'debit card' cos i'm not familiar with the Malaysia's variant.. but are debit cards issued by banks? those issued by banks which are the ATM card can be used on retails for shopping in many malls and shops too. In Sg we call it NETS payment.. i think this one has been around for more than 20 years and still going strong..

For public transport, we use the EZlink tap card (bus/mrt) and some fast food. For library fines/car park we use the CASH card that can be used for electronic car park, electronic road pricing (similar to tolls), shopping, TOTO/4D and some that accepts that.

Sometimes it is a hassle to carry so many cards..i wish they all integrate into one..

Constance Chan said...

jepunlauee - yes it is better to go cashless but u know we have these card insert into the car for payment, sometimes ppl break into cars to steal these cash cards... terrible also.. its ma huan to insert the cashcard everytime so we just leave it there...

Kikey Loo said...

yup, the some of the primary school in Malaysia already have this couple years ago, long long time liao...