Estonia, Financial Services, Markets and Companies, Retail

Retailers Association Board Member Enn Parel said that in the first euro days, the situation can emerge that people buy a newspaper from a store, paying with a 200 or 500 euro banknote and shops do not have enough exchange to give back. 200 euros is more than 3,000 kroons. Retailers hope that people will start making card payments more but that again means expenses for retailers since card fees that banks charge are not small.

Enn Parel said that most likely situations where people use a big bill to buy a pack of chewing gum won’t be very frequent but still, it should be determined how much money cashiers must have in their disposal to give change to customers.

“The problem of change is serious and we must have a right not to accept these bills if we cannot give change,” said Parel, adding that in several European states, shops have just one till which accepts 500 and 200 euro notes since there they have the equipment to check that the bill is genuine.

Parel said that state institutions that make preparations for the arrival of the euro have promised to think about the proposals of retailers and take them into consideration.