More such stores will be opened in the coming months. At the end of the year there are about fifteen in the whole country.
There are no vending machines for depositing coins in those stores. They would take up too much space, make a lot of noise and be difficult to empty. Devices for depositing coins are often placed in hardware stores. The Geldmaat website states where these machines can be found.
‘Task of the banks’
In Deventer, some entrepreneurs are not happy with the fact that many vending machines have been replaced in Geldmaatwinkels. “All vending machines at the bank branches have been removed. People who want to go out or eat out can no longer get cash,” says Erwin Rouwendal, owner of a Bruna store. “They can now go to the Geldmaatwinkel until 10 p.m., but it is on the edge of the center. Many people do not know it or do not know it. It is a customer-unfriendly situation.”
In his shop there is a Geldmaat machine to replace the ATMs of banks. “If I had known beforehand how it would go, I would have thought about it three times. I get a lot of people in the store who don’t know how to handle their cards and cash. We help them with all the love, but It’s basically the bank’s job.”
For people who need help with withdrawing money, Geldmaat has 321 places in the Netherlands where people can get assistance with withdrawing money. Those places are in Primera, Bruna and The Readshop stores.
Seniors’ organization KBO-PCOB says that the personal contact is appreciated, but that it is not a complete replacement of the bank branches where people used to go for more services.
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