Krungthai Bank (KTB) denied its shopping cash giveaway system broke down and blamed a shortage of cashiers for the long queue that led to shoppers abandoning their loaded trolleys at a superstore late Sunday night.
The state-run bank was responding to a viral post and photos showing a large number of loaded trolleys abandoned in front of a cashier station at a Tesco Lotus superstore. The incident reportedly happened at its branch in Laksi district.
KTB stated on Monday that each large store chain participating in the cash giveaway and rebate scheme of the government was allowed to have 20 cashier stands in each province.
In Bangkok, 20 branches of Tesco Lotus participated in the economic stimulus scheme, meaning there was only one cashier stand available at each branch. Customers abandoned their trolleys packed with goods in front of the cashier's stand at the branch because of the long queue, the bank stated.
Fiscal Policy Office director-general Lavaron Sangsnit said big store chains should reduce the number of participating branches in each province so that several cashier stands would be available to serve customers in each branch.
He also said that 370,523 of the 3.11 million people enrolled in the cash giveaway scheme spent 294 million baht in the first three days of the scheme, which started on Friday. Half the money was spent on goods, followed by meals and domestic tourism.