A supermarket in Cologne is restricting payments with 500 euro notes. This has now sparked lively discussions on the Reddit platform – and ironic comments.
Cologne – The fact that EC or credit card payments in many places in restaurants or privately run shops are linked to minimum payments bothers many consumers. However, there are also very own rules at the checkouts in some supermarkets, as the recent case of a post shared on the social media Reddit shows.
Cologne Edeka branch prohibits payments with 500 euro notes
There, a user pointed out a notice from the Edeka Center Engels in the Marsdorf district of Cologne under the hashtag “But please laminate” and shared a photo of the sign in question. “From now on we will no longer accept 500 euro notes,” it says, followed by the center’s signature. “People who can only pay €500 are excluded (...) sad,” the Reddit user captioned his post.
Photo of Ban is causing quite a stir and discussion on Reddit
The post caused a stir on Reddit. Since its appearance three days ago, it has been responded to with thumbs up almost 450 times and has also been commented on over a hundred times. Some Reddit users defended the Cologne Edeka Center notice.
One of them states: “Issuance was stopped 5 years ago, every note that passes through a bank is confiscated. Anyone who now pays with €500 notes is doing so purely with the intention of flexing, is a counterfeiter or simply stupid (because he apparently hoards large sums of cash at home).”
And another Reddit user, meanwhile, points out that €500 bills are “no longer printed at all” for a reason. “For the same reason why this Edeka doesn’t accept any more. Curbing counterfeit money,” he writes.
500 euro notes have been withdrawn from payment transactions for several years
And indeed: on May 4, 2016, the Council of the European Central Bank (ECB) decided that the production and issuance of 500 euro banknotes will be stopped towards the end of 2018. And that with the Europe series of euro banknotes there will no longer be a 500 euro banknote, as the Deutsche Bundesbank announced on its homepage. The 500 euro banknotes were last issued by the Deutsche Bundesbank and the Austrian National Bank on April 26, 2019. This means that they are now almost considered rare banknotes.
Another user argues against the theory that payments with 500 euro notes encourage trading in counterfeit money: “Supermarkets often check all notes with an electronic device to see whether they are genuine, that is a pretextual argument. The notes are just a bit more inconvenient when it comes to making change,” explains the user.
Reddit users ironically criticize the supermarket's ban on 500 euro bills
Meanwhile, another Reddit user ironically complained that payments with 500 euro notes are no longer possible in the Cologne Edeka branch from now on: “Now I can no longer use Flex to pay my 69ct Paulaner Spezi with a 500 -pay euro bill and rub it under everyone’s nose,” writes the Reddit user. The fact that he cannot watch the cashier in charge count out the remaining 499.31 euros destroys his ego.
The community learned from another Reddit user that large sums of money often cause problems for cashiers. Because the change required for this requires large parts of the cash balance. “Going to get change is easier said than done, because it usually involves a time-consuming process (leaving the cash register, calling a supervisor to get access to the safe, and so on). And many businesses simply don’t have that time,” he emphasizes.
(fh)