Joy of paying digitally

Yesterday I purchased something which cost ₹9. Anyways I did not have cash and was wondering if the shop accepts digital payment.

To my surprise, shopwala said okay and flashed a QR code from his machine. I scanned the code with BHIM and paid without any effort. 

This scene would have been different a couple of years ago. When I had to give a change, the treasure hunt from my bag will start off. The hunt will continue in many compartments of the bag and will take a minimum of 5 mins. If this hunt resulted in finding the change then okay.. Else the shop keeper will say ask the neighboring shops. Then I will take a ₹50 or ₹100 currency note and will embark on a different hunt. This time with other shops. Sometimes they will give the change and many times they will demand to buy something in their shop. So I would end up buying something which I may not need.. 

Also, before demonetization, most of the shops in my area accepted only cash and have good discounts. Since there were not many malls nearby, spending Sodexo coupons was much difficult. After many hunts, we found one store which accepted it.. though it sold at only MRP prices, we ended up buying at this store.

With demonetization and then the pandemic which encouraged no-touch shopping many of the shop keepers were forced to switch to digital payment.. This is one of the better side-effects of covid.