A large number of state welfare card-holders flocked to shops which have registered with the Department of Internal Trade to sell consumers goods under the Thong Fah (Blue Flag) Pracharat project throughout the country on Oct 1, the day the cards took effect.
Card-holders are required to show the cards along with their citizen identification cards when they want to buy items at shops displaying the "Thong Fah Pracharat" sign. The shops that have joined the project are each equipped with an electronic draft capture (EDC) machine for e-reading.
Each card-holder can use the card to spend 200-300 baht per month to make purchases at Thong Fah Pracharat shops -- 200 baht for those earning between 30,000 and 100,000 baht per year, and 300 baht for those earning less than 30,000 baht per year.
The cards can also be used to buy tickets for bus, train and electric train rides - up to 500 baht per month.
On Oct 1, the day the card was activated, a large number of card-holders turned up from early in the morning to buy consumer goods.
In Songkhla, people were seen queuing in front of participating shops from early in the morning. Most wanted to buy rice, sugar, fish sauce and household necessities.
Ekasak Arayanan, chief of the Songkhla office of commerce, said during an inspection trip that the project was useful and receiving a very good response from the card-holders.
The only problem, he said, is that each shop has only one EDC machine, leading to a long line of people in front of it.
Mr Ekasak said 410 shops have applied to join the project in Songkhla, but only 89 of them have been equipped with an EDC machine. All will be provided with the machine this year, he added.
Suthathip Thongkhaobua, chief supervisor of a department store in Songkhla, said she found the EDC machine worked slowly, causing big delays.
Yupadee Khaopong, a local card-holder, said the card can help her family make essential purchases.
In Nakhon Ratchasima, Chid Nikulram, a villager from Huay Rat district, said she had to travel more than 10 kilometres to Muang district to use the card as no shops in Huay Rat district have joined the project. So she decided to use both her and her mother's cards to spend the full amount of 300 baht each to save travel costs.
She was full of praise for the project, adding that the amount of money allowed for each kind of expenditure should be increased in the future.
Similar comments, both positive and negative, were heard in other provinces.
Most of the shop operators said they had a problem with the EDC machines.
In Surat Thani, Lek Promdee, 61, a welfare card holder, was the first person to use the card to buy a bus ticket - to Bangkok on Monday.
He, too, was very pleased with the card, saying it can help reduce household expenses.
