Giving the Homeless Credit Card Readers in Sweden to Earn Income

In Sweden, there is a magazine called Situation Stockholm that is sold by the homeless, who get to keep half of the money they get from selling the publication. There was one big problem: the Swedes don’t really like carrying cash.

“More and more of our sellers come in and say that people don’t have cash — they have told us this for a long time,” says Pia Stolt, the magazine’s chief executive officer. “This becomes frustrating, but now they feel they offer an opportunity to buy the paper.”

The answer was to give the homeless credit card readers to help them move more magazines. At first, Stolt wasn’t sure if Swedes would be comfortable whipping out their cards to pay for the magazines on the street, but there really hasn’t been a problem so far. Sounds like a good way to help the homeless earn some legitimate income!

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