Cash crisis at Grantown ATM being 'addressed as quickly as possible'
The company responsible for keeping Grantown's only two ATMs in action has told the Strathy it is sorry for the problem which beset the local Co-op store bang in the middle of its biggest day of the year.
A spokesperson for Cardtronics said: "The machine is out of cash and will be filled up as soon as possible."
Over the road at Scotmid the problem was the same, with demand from yesterday's Grantown Show restoration way above normal.
Throughout the day both the stores had to field complaints which had nothing to do with them, with Cardtronics, part of Cashzone, independently responsible for the maintenance of the 'holes in the wall' which were suddenly under such pressure with the Strathspey capital hosting its first show day since before the Covid-19 pandemic.
But as Cardtronics say themselves, they are not a bank.
Grantown's cash exposure now, with no banks left in the town, was left red raw at times yesterday.
As one of the show-goers complained: "The town should have made such a fuss about this a few years ago when the banks started threatening to pull out.
"Four years ago we had as many banks. There are none now, and only two holes in the wall and they were both empty.
"Not one of the banks thought to have a mobile unit here at the show ground. Why ever not?
"It was chaos at one point."
The Co-op policy is to offer cashback to its customers but are compelled to limit each of them to £50 a time.
The Strathy undertands that for most of the afternoon on Show Day the demand for cashback was so intense that the store simply ran out of funds to maintain the service for two or three hours.
