A Carrefour supermarket in Tianjin Municipality last week advertised for coins as change for its consumers.

The shop has been in short supply of coins for days. To get more, the ad promised to offer gifts for those changing 30 yuan ($3.84) worth of coins for the shop. But there were no responses to its call.

Up to 80 percent of shoppers don’t pay their bills with coins because some say it’s inconvenient to use and others just leave coins inside their money boxes at home, a local media survey found.

(中国日报)

By Sun Tzu on 04-01-2007