A French woman has shared her surprise over how widely digital payments are used in India, saying she did not expect to find QR codes everywhere, from roadside food stalls and chai shops to autorickshaws and small local businesses.
“As a French woman, I never expected to pay for almost everything with my phone in India, and I mean… everywhere. Street food? Just scan the QR code. Chai? Scan the QR code. Auto? Even a tiny little shop in the middle of the street? QR code.
Coming from France, this honestly surprised me,” she said. Responding to the comment, the woman said, “I completely agree that travelling opens the mind, especially when we travel with enough curiosity to realise that our own experience of a country is not the same as knowing everything about it. She added that travelling beyond the “tourist bubble” can help people discover different realities within the same country and leave more room for “curiosity, nuance and the possibility of learning something you didn’t already know.”
“One thing I never expected to discover in India… Before coming to India, I knew about UPI, but I honestly didn’t realize how deeply digital payments are integrated into everyday life. A chai? Scan the QR. Street food? A tiny local shop? Scan. Pay. Done,” she wrote.
Even a ₹ 20 snack?
“You can find QR codes at small street-food stalls, local shops, cafés, rickshaws and businesses of all kinds,” she wrote, describing it as one of the everyday cultural differences she had not expected to encounter.
