Smartcard to ease shopping at Mother Dairy booths

How many times have you shopped for fruits, vegetables and milk at a Mother Dairy outlet and realised that for want of the ‘exact change’ you had to either buy something extra or remain content with a signed scrap of paper to denote the money the outlet owed you? Ofcourse this ‘scrap’ could be adjusted on a purchase later but the chances of it getting misplaced remained a distinct possibility! But, no more of those ‘shortchange’ woes now. Customers at Mother Dairy booths can now look forward to a hassle-free mode of payment.

Taking a giant leap in terms of innovation and technology, Mother Dairy Fruits and Vegetable Pvt Ltd has, in collaboration with State Bank of India (SBI), launched a ‘SmartChange’ card for its milk booths in Delhi and NCR to purchase products from its outlets instead of paying in cash, particularly coins. Aimed at providing a convenient mode of payment to its booth consumers, the company is targeting to convert 20 per cent of the footfall into this dedicated ‘Smartchange Card’ holders in the initial phase.

Serving the city for around four decades, Mother Dairy’s recent initiative is a first-of-its-kind in the dairy industry, which is aimed at providing a hassle-free mode of payment.
“It is indeed a welcome step and long awaited. SmartChange card will not only facilitate consumers but also retailers, for whom tendering exact change is not possible every time,” said Kamla Devi, a daily customer told Metrolife. “There were times when one had to go back without getting the products or wait for long due to the absence of exact change amount.

This step will definitely reinforce the industry and will bring cheer among the customers,”  Rajendra Pillai, another happy customer said. The ‘SBI-Mother Dairy SmartChange Card’ is presently available at 76 milk booths in the NCR region. In its bid to ensure the project’s success, Mother Dairy ran a pilot project for a month in select outlets across Delhi NCR.

“We realised that we had a dual problem of tendering exact change to consumers after purchase from booths and, also for cash handling hassle for concessionaire due to usage of coins. Hence, we decided to launch the SmartChange Cards at our booths. We are hoping this initiative will start a trend and will ease the life of consumers further in the long-run,” said Mother Dairy Fruits and Vegetable managing director, S Nagarajan, while launching the card.
State Bank of India deputy managing director (corporate strategy and new businesses) SK Mishra speaking to Metrolife further corroborated that the card is specifically designed to be user friendly and convenient to cater to the needs of Mother Dairy booth consumers. It is positioned as an alternative to use of small notes/ coins at Mother Dairy outlets, he said.

The company is planning to increase the services to 150 booths in the initial phase of three months. The card can be used to purchase other grocery and vegetable items of Mother Dairy like Safal products and Dhara oil. A customer will be charged Rs 25 as a token cost at the issuance of the card.