Book fair tries to beat demonetisation

Book sellers are dealing with poor GPRS network connectivity to operate PoS machines.

Book stall owners at the annual Chennai Book Fair are trying to beat the demonetisation pangs using e-wallets such as Paytm, UPI and mobile point of sale (PoS) machines.

However, large crowds and poor GPRS network connectivity to operate the PoS machines are practical problems book sellers are dealing with.

A visit to the fair on Saturday showed the kind of challenges book sellers were facing owing to demonetisation. Specific tables have been set up with PoS machines — 50 machines in all — to enable customers swipe their cards. But, this involves walking a fair distance with a representative of the store, waiting in queue and getting the card swiped.

The issue is compounded when stall owners are not able to accept ₹2,000 notes and give the necessary change after a purchase, thereby losing out on a sale.

A book seller who had a PoS machine, in fact, had to step out of the tented area to check if the machine worked. Despite swiping the card twice, the transaction timed out. Only after the seller changed the Sim card on the machine did the transaction go through.

10,000 visitors on Sunday

Despite these practical problems, more than 10,000 people visited the fair on Sunday. “Mostly, transactions get delayed by two minutes. We have not had any issues of machines crashing on Sunday. But with such huge crowds, PoS machines that operate on GPRS do get jammed. Many of the stalls also provide mobile PoS (mPOS) which work quite well,” Gandhi Kannadhasan, president, BAPASI said.

The organisers have also made arrangements for people who want to pay in cash. Two ATMs have been set up at the site — one just outside the ticket counter, and one inside the hall — to enable people to withdraw cash for their purchases.