According to the Shebaa company, there was a 10% decrease in expenditure compared to 2019, since only 15 malls opened today • In the busiest minute, transactions were made for NIS 3.5 million.
The people of Israel are taking advantage of the "Black Friday" promotions, and within three hours spent about NIS 400 million by using credit cards.
Photo: Moshe Ben Simhon, Yoni Rickner
Data from the Shebaa (Automatic Banking Services) company, which operates the national credit card payment system, show that the volume of credit card purchases today between 09:00 and 12:00 is about 10% lower than last year, when revenues were affected by the fact that only 15 Malls were opened as part of a pilot by the Ministry of Finance.
Israelis today spent about NIS 400 million in this range of hours, compared to last year, when transactions worth NIS 440 million were recorded.
A year earlier, in 2018, the amount at these hours was NIS 380 million.
The busiest minute today was at 11:55, during which more than 10,800 transactions in the amount of NIS 3.5 million took place.
The data also show that about half of the credit card transactions made this morning were made at terminals with EMV technology, through which transactions can be made without contact or by entering a secret code.
According to data from ICC, as of 12:00, Israelis made purchases amounting to NIS 19 million on international trading sites, an increase of 18% compared to last year.
Starting at 12:00, the company has a sales rate of about NIS 60,000 per minute, which is about NIS 1,000 per second.
The company expects that this pace will continue until around 22:00.
Shahar Turgeman, chairman of the Association of Commercial, Fashion and Catering Chains, attacked the decision to carry out the pilot, which allowed 15 malls to operate normally for 10 days. Nevertheless, he set out and everything we warned him about did happen - huge queues, a dangerous gathering and real abuse of the citizens of Israel.
"All this is due to the fact that 15 out of about 180 malls in Israel have been opened, and due to the fact that the Ministry of Health has placed a limit of 10 shoppers in the store, a limit that does not apply to writers, pharmacies, electrical stores and do-it-yourself stores."
"The Minister of Health, who does not understand a thing and a half about trade, continues to make fateful decisions for trade in Israel, decisions that cause the loss of hundreds of thousands of jobs in Israel and leave 350,000 workers in the IDF," Turgeman continued. "We call on the Israeli government to open all trade "Immediately in accordance with the rules of the purple character, and immediately remove the limit of 10 people to shop and work solely in accordance with the rules of the purple character."
