Any Mexican could chime in here? Why is this supermarket pushing bitcoin too much to the point that they're giving a good 20% discount? I don't see the incentive for them to do something like this in a business point of view. Unless they own a wallet+exchange software like Coinbase/CashApp/etc; which I'm pretty sure they don't because they're using BitPay.
Here's what people from Mexico think about this:
Quote from: https://www.reddit.com/r/CryptoCurrency/comments/rib4u2/elektra_one_of_the_biggest_retail_stores_in/howa20c/
While this is great news, I feel obligated as a Mexican to clear some things up: the thing is that Elektra is a retail store that it's target is people with very low income. Most purchases in Elektra are loans (like 10 years of monthly payments for a fridge). I think is very unlikely that Elektra clients have some crypto bc they struggle a lot with money, they could buy crypto just to pay at Elektra but that would mean that they will have to pay once, instead of a lifetime of little payments.
Reading the parent's company wikipedia page it seems that they're mostly a financial services company, processing a lot of remittances, loans, etc. Basically if you go and buy there you can get a "mini-loan" on the spot, for example you end up paying the TV for months instead of just one payment:
Quote from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grupo_Elektra
The company has operations in Latin America and is the largest non-bank provider of cash advance services in the United States.
Grupo Elektra sells close to 1 of every 4 televisions commercialized in Mexico, 1 of every 5 refrigerators, 7 of every 10 motorcycles, and pays a substantial proportion of the electronic money transfers from the United States into Mexico.
It offers its services to sectors that have been underserved by traditional financial institutions through Banco Azteca, Seguros Azteca, Afore Azteca, Advance America and Punto Casa de Bolsa.
My guess is that probably they want to acquire a lot of Bitcoin first by exchanging their stock instead of paying cash, to then create some kind of financial service based on bitcoin for the money transfers (maybe to compete with Strike and others).
This reddit comment kinda matches this idea, they want to keep bitcoins for themselves:
Quote from: https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/ri1zwb/elektra_owned_by_salinas_pliego_accepts_bitcoin/houyxa7/
They also said they will keep it on their balance and not converting into fiat.
