The Big Issue seller who you can pay with a contactless bank card!
A BIG Issue seller says his sales have soared since he bought a contactless card machine.
Robin Fabian, 50, had been struggling to shift copies of the magazine because so few potential customers carry cash.
So he invested in a £30 contactless card machine and within one day of trading, the handheld card reader had paid for itself.
Mr Fabian, who has been selling The Big Issue in Bristol for seven years, said: ‘I like my pitch. It’s in an affluent area and the magazine seems especially popular with students from the university. My customers are great. They’re really nice people, and I just want to thank all of them.
‘People look out for me – they bring me things like cheese and eggs, and offer to get me a drink. It means a lot.’
He added: ‘Just before Christmas I invested in a credit card reader, which paid for itself after the first day.
‘I reckon since then I’ve sold about 200 extra issues by having that on me, although I have to hold it on top of my issues so people can see that I have it. I think I’m the only vendor in the area who has one, which gives me a bit of an edge over the others.’
Originally from London, Mr Fabian arrived in Bristol in 2007 after living in Germany with his wife and two children.
He said that when he first returned to the UK he was living in squats and sleeping on friends’ sofas, while struggling with an addiction to opiates.
He overcame his addiction after enrolling on a drug rehabilitation course in Bristol.
Big Issue sellers buy magazines for £1.25 and sell them for £2.50, keeping the difference.