When The Big Issue was launched in June 1996, few would have imagined vendors would one day be taking credit card payments on mini hand-held computers. Welcome to the future! From today, Big Issue vendors will offer more ways to pay for The Big Issue magazine: now you can use cash, card and Beem It. In this edition, we celebrate this mighty milestone by introducing the exciting new technology and its life-changing impact for our vendors.
We also look at what a cashless world will mean for society’s most vulnerable, travel to the digital payment utopia of Sweden, and go back in time to look at the history of money (it really did grow on trees!).