Old Quay market traders adopt card payments as cash use falls

Nearly all of the 86 traders at the Old Quay weekend market now accept card and phone payments, up from fewer than half two years ago. The change follows a group agreement negotiated by the market traders' association that cut transaction fees and supplied low-cost card readers to stallholders.

Association secretary Margaret Doyle, who has sold cheese at the market for 19 years, said traders had noticed a steady fall in the number of customers carrying cash. "We were losing sales every weekend, especially from younger shoppers and visitors off the ferry," she said. "People would ask if we took cards, and walk on when we said no."

Under the deal, members pay a flat monthly fee of €9 and a lower percentage per transaction than most individual traders had been offered. The readers work over the mobile network, which matters on a quayside where electricity points are limited. Several traders said takings had risen by between 10 and 20 per cent since they started accepting cards.

The first Saturday with the reader I sold out of sourdough by eleven. I had never done that before.

Cash still welcome

That was the experience of baker Rosalind Teague, though she, like most traders, has no plans to stop taking cash. The association has asked members to keep accepting coins and notes, noting that some older customers and people on tight budgets prefer to pay that way. A notice at the market entrance says every stall will take cash.

The change has also made life easier for the market itself. Pitch fees can now be paid online in advance, and the association is testing a scheme in which shoppers pre-order from several stalls and collect everything at one point. Ms Doyle said a winter evening market in December would be the first to run fully on the new system.