Toronto Caribbean Carnival Finally Becomes Plastic-Friendly

This past Saturday marked the return of the Toronto Caribbean Carnival parade. Also commonly referred to as “Caribana” (its former official name), the annual parade marks the culmination of weeks of celebrating the music, food and costumes of the Caribbean. Known for bringing millions of people to Lakeshore Ave., including visitors from all over the world, the annual parade is also known for bringing in millions of dollars to the City of Toronto.

Just one of the ways that the former Caribana parade has accomplished this is through the many vendors that line the parade route. From food and drinks to clothing and music, there are ample opportunities to take in the sights, sounds and smells of the Caribbean islands. It’s always a wondrous time for event-goers. However, this year, there seemed to be an interesting new wrinkle added to the proceedings.

As you may expect, vendors at the parade commonly accept cash in exchange for their goods. But, for the first time, it became quite noticeable that many of them advertised the fact that they accepted debit and credit cards this year. “I’d never seen that at Caribana before,” commented a colleague of Canadian POS Corporation who attended the parade, “I just had to take a picture to show you guys.” Click on the photo to the left for a closer look.

Noticeably, vendors at the Toronto Caribbean Carnival were aware that accepting debit and credit, in addition to cash, was a great way to increase sales. “Especially at an event that always brings a lot of people to one place, it provides great peace of mind to know that you don’t have to carry cash with you anymore,” said our colleague, “I was very impressed. I think that as times roll along, all the vendors will accept debit and credit.”

We would assume the same. Merchants from all over Canada are widely accepting the fact that Canadian shoppers prefer to pay with plastic. As our colleague pointed out, people feel a lot safer not having to carry cash around with them anymore. As well, there are numerous benefits that credit cards provide their users. Among them are rewards points, purchase protection and travel insurances.

However, it is the sheer convenience of knowing that you can buy anything at anytime that people seem to really love. “I’d always seem to run out of money at Caribana,” admitted our colleague, “There would always be something I’d like to buy that I didn’t expect or I’d get more hungry or thirsty than I expected. But I couldn’t buy anything because I would run out of cash. That problem got solved this year.”

Will you be a vendor at an upcoming summer event in your city? If so, you could certainly make use of our Wireless terminals. They allow you to process payments at anywhere and at anytime. This year, avoid losing any customers who have run out of cash. It is no longer commonplace to go to an outdoor summer event and be expected to only pay with cash. So don’t insist upon it from your customers.

At Canadian POS Corporation, we offer the Ingenico Telium2 iWL250G for all of your wireless terminal needs. It’s an all-in-one mobile solution that efficiently and securely processes transactions anywhere. It accepts credit cards, debit cards and gift cards and also allows for the convenience of “tap and go” payments. For more information, call Canadian POS Corporation at 1-877-748-2884 or email us at info@localhost.