The supermarket doesn’t just have milk, mineral water and bread rolls. For many years, consumers have also been able to withdraw cash. The HDE trade association estimates that 22,000 branches across Germany already offer this option – and the trend is rising.
A representative survey by Kantar Emnid on behalf of Postbank revealed in 2019 that almost every third customer now uses this service in the supermarket. As a rule, a customer can take a maximum of 200 euros. The retailer debits the amount paid out together with the purchase value from the customer’s account.
For this, however, customers also have to buy for a certain amount. The background is that merchants have to pay small fees for cash withdrawals. A good three years ago, the fee was ten cents per transaction.
These costs apply to the purchase. In technical jargon, by the way, this procedure is called “cashback” – that is, to repay notes and coins. While a minimum purchase value of 10 euros has prevailed in the industry, Lidl is now going a surprising way.
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